Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Have Grey knights ever fallen?

No. Every single piece of Grey Knights fluff makes it a point of stating this.

But they can fall. Why would they use so many unusual purification rituals (mmmmm sororitas blood) if they couldnt. So while one never has fallen... that doesnt mean they can't >

Thanks for the info. I wanted to have a themed army of Greyknights who are fighting Chaos. A last stand type of scenario, where the the ones in side the circle are protected but the others fighting out side are slowing being corrupted. Even though they are being tainted they still fight against it and the demons.

Laughing God wrote:But they can fall. Why would they use so many unusual purification rituals (mmmmm sororitas blood) if they couldnt. So while one never has fallen... that doesnt mean they can't >

No, they can't. Creating a ward to ensure that you're unaffected by what is described as a daemonic plague is not the same as "falling".

As has been stated, time and time again.

The spirit is unbreakable, but the flesh isn't. Just like any other Astartes---they're vulnerable to plagues, poisons, and diseases. There's a part in the Vraks books where a Great Unclean One puts his sword just barely through a Grey Knight's Terminator Armour and seconds later all that's left is a dessicated husk.

indeed, Gks are totally incurruptable in spirit.


they are still flesh and blood though and can be killed or overwhelmed

So in Essence a grey night could be a turned into a twisted shell of a man with mutation, diseases, and plagues... but he would still fight against the chaos that is consuming him to the bitter end.

Rikashi wrote:So in Essence a Grey Knight could be a turned into a twisted shell of a man with mutation, diseases, and plagues... but he would still fight against the chaos that is consuming him to the bitter end.

Yep.

None have ever fallen, but that does not mean that none will ever fall. Which could be some really interesting fluff, if a tad convoluted.

Small, Far Away wrote:None have ever fallen, but that does not mean that none will ever fall. Which could be some really interesting fluff, if a tad convoluted.

Actually, that's exactly what it means.


"Incorruptible in spirit" means exactly that.

Small, Far Away wrote:None have ever fallen, but that does not mean that none will ever fall. Which could be some really interesting fluff, if a tad convoluted.

It also means "Don't you dare!"

Small, Far Away wrote:None have ever fallen, but that does not mean that none will ever fall. Which could be some really interesting fluff, if a tad convoluted.

won't ever happen.


people who suggest such a thing end up finding a Turbo-penetrator round where their brain used to be.


I shall accept Female Space marines before I let a GK fall to chaos.

Lets for a second think about this. If you view Chaos as Zombies and you view the Grey Knights as zombie killers. If you (a Grey Knight) were killing a bunch of zombies (Chaos) and you get bit (through all of your happy anointed stuff)...I'm pretty sure your battle brothers would gladly kill you to keep your flesh from turning to zombie (chaos). Then you die and are buried on Titan never to be spoken of again. You surely didn't fall to chaos (zombie) and you died in battle. Bam.

Chaos doesn't work like that.


its a spiritual corruption that has physical symptoms.

Nurgle uses dieseases as his weapons of choice and these weapons can corrupt you in both body(getting sick) and in soul(turning to nurgle to give you immunity)

the Grey Knights are immune to the 2nd part of Nurgles corruption, but the 1st they are mearly resistant to.

I think its one of the many hypocrisies of GW's fluff. Its impossible for Gk's to be spiritually corrupted... but then why do they need so many totems and wards to keep back the taint of chaos?

In the very controversial story about the GKs killing the SoB to purify themselves from the taint of the bloodtide this showes us that if they had not the Grey knights would have been corrupted and set about killing each other in khornish fashon? idk honestly Im kind of feeling the Grey Knights fluff has been altered alot to fit with the newer more OTT animeish SM

This bit always bugged me. I can accept the GK never having fallen, but being "incorruptible" really just means that they are not human, and are basically machines with purity wards on them.

Think about it: human emotion and thought feed Chaos. It's through those thoughts and emotions that humans can be affected by Chaos. If the GK are incorruptible in spirit, that means that they're incapable of despair, hope, anger, love, pain, pleasure, rebellion, joy, hatred or any other emotion that Chaos could possibly touch them through. The part in their fluff about mind-wiping supports this; they're literally brainwashed of any feelings or memories that could expose them to Chaos. And even then, it's possible for Chaos to corrupt a machine or a Xeno, so the GK being incorruptible can be attributed to the seals and wards on their armor.

When you get right down to it, the GK must be as lifeless and as inhuman as you can get.

Hawkward wrote:This bit always bugged me. I can accept the GK never having fallen, but being "incorruptible" really just means that they are not human, and are basically machines with purity wards on them.

Think about it: human emotion and thought feed Chaos. It's through those thoughts and emotions that humans can be affected by Chaos. If the GK are incorruptible in spirit, that means that they're incapable of despair, hope, anger, love, pain, pleasure, rebellion, joy, hatred or any other emotion that Chaos could possibly touch them through. The part in their fluff about mind-wiping supports this; they're literally brainwashed of any feelings or memories that could expose them to Chaos. And even then, it's possible for Chaos to corrupt a machine or a Xeno, so the GK being incorruptible can be attributed to the seals and wards on their armor.

When you get right down to it, the GK must be as lifeless and as inhuman as you can get.

I always thought that was part of the "cool thing" with them. They basically aren't human, they are so devoted to their cause that they have sacrificed all human emotion and virtually everything else that makes human, just so that they can withstand Chaos.

Ixias wrote:
I always thought that was part of the "cool thing" with them. They basically aren't human, they are so devoted to their cause that they have sacrificed all human emotion and virtually everything else that makes human, just so that they can withstand Chaos.

Cool, but inconsistent. If they hope to beat Chaos, they feed Tzeentch. If they are resigned to their duty, they feed Nurgle. If they hate Chaos and fight it, they feed Khorne. If they seek to perfect their skills in fighting Chaos, they feed Slaanesh. Any way you go, they feed Chaos - unless they give up all personality. That's nice, but only if you don't like character development or unique characters or roleplaying.

Laughing God wrote:I think its one of the many hypocrisies of GW's fluff. Its impossible for Gk's to be spiritually corrupted... but then why do they need so many totems and wards to keep back the taint of chaos?

They don't wear totems and wards to 'keep back the taint of Chaos'. They wear totems and wards that prevent them from being attacked directly by psychic attacks, which many Daemons utilize.

In the very controversial story about the GKs killing the SoB to purify themselves from the taint of the bloodtide this showes us that if they had not the Grey knights would have been corrupted and set about killing each other in khornish fashon? idk honestly Im kind of feeling the Grey Knights fluff has been altered alot to fit with the newer more OTT animeish SM

Jeezum, not this crap again.

We don't know what the effects of the Bloodtide or the associated Goreflood are. For all we know, the Goreflood can be something that eats clean through armor and flesh. There's a reason that the remaining Sisters of Battle didn't hat up and gun down the Daemon.

I thought that the whole point of the Purifier Brotherhood was that they were "more incorruptible" or more spiritually pure than a Normal Grey Knight.

Crowe is the most pure of all. That is why he is chosen to watch over his Daemon Weapon. His fluff section seems to imply that any other Grey Knight would not be up to this task.

I don't know about that, but it may just be yet another case of Ward not being articulate enough to make the point that he's trying to get across.

The Purifier Brotherhood comes across less as "We're the purest of the pure!" and more "Our purity is something we've learned to wield as a weapon".

a Normal Grey Knight is highly resistant to chaos,


Purifiers are totally immune to it.


Regular GKs can't be effected by chaos,


Purifier's very souls are so pure that their presense can cause the corruption of the warp to burn away.

I recently read the first book in Ben Counter's Grey Knights series and it seemed as if their greatest concern was being the first Grey Knight to fall to chaos.

that is every GKs fear, that he shall be the 1st to fall.

Hawkward wrote:This bit always bugged me. I can accept the GK never having fallen, but being "incorruptible" really just means that they are not human, and are basically machines with purity wards on them.

That's actually accurate.

Grey Knights are expunged of any previous personality when they become GKs and are ritually indoctrinated with new personalities that don't contain any of the weaknesses that would allow them to be corrupted by Chaos.

They are uncorruptable, and this is why:

not all the original GK members were psykers, but every member after that was.


the GKs draw recruits from the Black Ships which scour the galaxy looking for psykers.

tarnish wrote:They are uncorruptable, and this is why:

Spoiler:

The emperor not only made their geneseeds, he based them on his own genetic makeup. this is the only chapter that actually runs on pure emperor-juice. interestingly, the seed also greats non-psyker initiates the abbilities to use psykic powers. this is not said directly but is a conclusion since the first greyknights where not all psykers before they where inducted, infact only a select few where.

That's only a rumour...
And considering that Primarchs were made from his DNA and that all SM have gene-seed from their primarchs...
They are all essentially like his Great-Great-granchildren...

read the founding of the grey knights in the new dex... nothing in there about a rumour

purplefood wrote:

tarnish wrote:They are uncorruptable, and this is why:

Spoiler:

The emperor not only made their geneseeds, he based them on his own genetic makeup. this is the only chapter that actually runs on pure emperor-juice. interestingly, the seed also greats non-psyker initiates the abbilities to use psykic powers. this is not said directly but is a conclusion since the first greyknights where not all psykers before they where inducted, infact only a select few where.

That's only a rumour...
And considering that Primarchs were made from his DNA and that all SM have gene-seed from their primarchs...
They are all essentially like his Great-Great-granchildren...

I'm inclined to agree with tarnish here. You know how these "rumors" always end up becoming canon.

As for the ancestry thing, think of if this way. The Sensei all have psyker powers, but the SM do not. Then again, the Sensei are the Emperor's children (no pun intended) and the SM are his Grandchildren. If we consider GK his children (not literally, but you understand me), then logically it makes sense that GK would be more connected to the Emperor than SM and therefore granted psyker abilities.