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I know this question gets asked hundreds of times, but here it is again for my own personal clarification. Who is allowed to know about Daemons? And who is allowed to know about Grey Knights? And what happens to those who find out?

Nobody, nobody, death.

Basically anyone who isn't a Lord General or above, or a Space Marine.

And seeing the GKs isn't whats bad. Its that you might have seen what the GKs were fighting. Just being in proximity to a daemonic invasion or threat that was serious enough to require the GKs to deal with it is something thats going to corrupt everyone in the vicinity.

So just seeing a GK is no big deal. As far as your average person is concerned they are just a chapter of space marines, "WHOA, DUDE, the Space Marines are here!" and all that jazz.

Seeing the Daemons the GKs are there to banish is bad, and so the GKs will have to sterilize the area to prevent the taint from spreading.

All that being said, if you (or your unit) is particularly useful to someone with a decent amount of political pull (such as an Inquisitor), you might, just might, get away with a mind-wipe. But mostly it's death, blood, and skulls as far as the knights of Khorne are concerned

Don't know about GKs, but plenty of the Imperium (Guard, Navy, etc) know about/have seen/have fought daemons, chaos, mutants, warp etc.

It'd be pretty silly otherwise.

 Anfauglir wrote:
Don't know about GKs, but plenty of the Imperium (Guard, Navy, etc) know about/have seen/have fought daemons, chaos, mutants, warp etc.

It'd be pretty silly otherwise.

It completely various. Sometimes no one knows, sometimes people recognize GK by simply looking at them


Automatically Appended Next Post:
but ya, what this post says makes the most sense

Most Imperials know of "heretics" and "dark forces" you're not supposed to get involved with. Chaos and Daemons specifically is an entirely other level of information only reserved for Space Marines, Inquisitor's, high-level adepts/commanders, etc..

On an official level?

No one outside the Ordos Malleus, knowledge of the ruinous powers is a death sentence.

On a practical level?

As the circumstances dictate.

The Inquistion doesn't have too much sway over the Astartes, so they're generally off the hook as far as knowledge about Chaos goes. Additionally it's hard to tell them Chaos doesn't exist when its confirmed in their own histories.

The Imperial Guard are another matter entirely. It's retinue for regiments to be mindwipped or purged following an encounter with the forces of chaos. That said it's not always practical. The Sabbat Crusade forces have encountered Chaos for example but being in a ongoing crusade it would be counter productive and impractical to execute them now. Once the crusade is finished however...

Then there's the vital worlds like Cadia who due to their proximity to the Eye and near constant Chaos activity would have a greater knowledge than most.

For the common citizenry of the Imperium though the knowledge is most definitely proscribed. We've seen this in the aftermath of the First Armageddon War, the whole populace was purged due to fears of corruption and having seen what they should not.

It's a harsh line but somewhat understandable. Imagine how badly morale would be effected if you knew there was a literal hell dimension with sentient daemons who wanted to consume your soul? In fact most don't even know what the warp really is and just how dangerous warp travel is and what it entails.

The Inquisition knows and works with the GK, some alien races who the GK have allied such as Jokaero's. Besides from them i do not know who is allowed to know about them. Usually space marines escape with a mindwipe because they are to valuable but normal Imperial Guardsmen are usually killed off BUT if the Guardsmen showed heroism then they will get a mindwipe. An example of the GK seriousness is at some battle i forgot the name of the GK sent their ships to destroy transport ships carrying IG from a battle where they had seen the GK.

Jokearo are not a race persay. They are animals that use hyper advanced technology, and the Imperium exploits that by semi-domesticating them.

At least 34 Death Korps regiments have survived Grey Knights fighting Demons...

Edit: 33, the 19th was wiped out to a man, must've had one too many PDF infiltrator.

Why do they kill someone who just sees a GK

At the last count, the Imperial Administration had 305.548 official decrees on this subject. Some of the more famous one include the Adrotian Legislation passed in M.38 that all Imperial Guardsman below the rank of Captain ought to be executed after contact with Daemons. After Inquisitor Donovardo's failed attempt to implement this policy after a successful campaign alongside the Cadian XII (after which said Inquisitor was found dead, apparently having triggered his own bolt-pistol in an unfortunate stumble) no known instances of this policy in action have been recorded. Implementation of the other policies is equally sporadic. A notable exception could be decree 222.547 by an anonymous source from M.35. This comparatively lenient degree was applied with a certain regularity between M.39 25 - to M.39 .28 in the Ultima Segmentum. Why it fell into disuse afterwards is a source of much speculation among scholars of Imperial legislation.

 Shlazaor wrote:
Why do they kill someone who just sees a GK

Seeing a Grey Knight isn't the issue, it's seeing what the Grey Knight is fighting. To the majority of people daemons don't exist, they can't exist. They don't know that to travel the stars you have to fly through a sentient hell dimension, that there are daemons waiting to eat you. They don't know that men can be corrupted by Chaos and turn traitor, they don't know that the Emperor's own sons and the Angels of Death can fall.

Those are horrible, psyche shattering things to learn. It's also dangerous information, it could provoke revolts, rebellion of further chaotic corruption. The Inquisition has deemed it best that the greater mass of people don't know such dangerous secrets. Chaos corrupts and those that encounter it must be purged.

The GK dont want the seriousness of the Daemons to get out.

Plenty of people know about daemons and that they exist, its knowing ones name or what he stands for ( Ie i know that nurgle is the plague and rot dude) that might get you in trouble. Plenty of navy people know about them cause once in a while one might manifest on your ship, IG know about them cause they might be called upon to kill them+ IG vets can tell stories... just not in front of a inquisitor. General public probably knows but theyve only heard stories about monsters who will eat your soul if you dont pray to the empy. Grey iknights are another story... most people wont know who the grey knights are.. and the ones (not in the know) they just see giant metal men with a book painted on their armour