At 9ft tall you need to be one hell of a sneaky bastard to infiltrate potential coups

It's really cool how you credit art. I never see a cool art piece and have to wonder where I could find it.

Show Amazon should be making: the sit-com adventures of a 10,000 year old 9ft demi-God warrior philosopher trying to infiltrate underground cults in Terra 😅

ArbitorIan's videos put everyone else to shame. No gimmicks are anything dumb - just pure lore making no qualms about it.

“Using the most ancient of surveillance technologies.” Now I just have this image of a Custodes hunched over a bank of security cameras.

"The Misericordia was a symbol of tyrannical rule, coopted to represent the Emperor's judgment and the right of its bearer to act as his sanctioned executioner." Subtle...

For anyone wondering how giants can be stealthy; in the book “lion son of the Forest” a Fallen Dark Angel explains that he basically just puts on a cloak and walks slowly like a servitor or an abhuman (eg Ogyrn). Apparently giant monster-people are super common on imperial worlds to work in factories, mines, docks etc so they get ignored

Custodes: The only faction that is legally allowed to try nuking the Emperor.

Custodes are such an interesting faction when you did deep. There's a lot that's thought provoking beyond just 'the strongest warriors'

Custodes a great example of Black Library making me start a whole army. Master of Mankind the most expensive book I've ever read 😂

I always knew the Custodes were tragic, but having skipped ahead in my Heresy readalong to Valdor and Master of Mankind... dang. I never expected to fall in love with these tragic warrior-philosophers, but, as I approach the climax of Master of Mankind, I begin to feel my heartstrings tugged at what has happened, is happening, and what is to come. The fact they question their free will, that the emperor will telepathically talk to them, the idea that they're literally a whole army version of my roleplaying with my necromunda war dollies back in the day... I never expected to come out of the books wanting to build a cohort and tell their stories, but now I think I have to (that and revisit my first love of Blood Angels :P). Perhaps the detail I would add to your excellent video is how the Custodes are descibed when fighting in both the books. A force of dispassionate warriors, who fight as if it's just another dull day in the office. Warriors who have overwhelming force versus nearly all foes, yet who pull their first blows to gain time to learn more about their opponents and their culture. No regimented ranks, yet when they fight they an easy ballet with their compatriots, fighting as if it's a dance but with no need for grace or beauty beyond those granted by metaphors for the art of war. Brutal thinking, learning gene-machines who kill because He must be protected, and will just ignore what does not threaten Him.

Custodes were my first army and remain my largest, been looking forward to this one! Hoping more of their Forge World range appear in present 40K fluff soon. My lunch break can't get here soon enough

Wait, the pantsless Custodes are explained in canon by saying they "shed their armour in mourning" for the Emperor? Brilliant.

How do you infiltrate anywhere when you're 9' tall?

One thing in the lore that I liked was when an Astartes said that the Space Marines are like wolves and the Custodes are akin to lions. That has to count for something.

"Detramerica" Oh No! The Genelords of DETROIT! XD XD XD

According to Valdor's book, the custodes started wearing only armor of plate and leather and unpowered blades

I love how custodes are written in the Heresy Novels especially first heretic. They are so cocky and such assholes to everyone but you get the feeling they can be like this because they truely ARE superior.

Corpse? Corpse! CORPSE STRAPPED TO THE GOLDEN THRONE?! Now you’re in for it buddy! I’m forwarding this to Empress Manga and she’ll be sure to sort you out and set you strait real quick like! I hope you like mucking out the sewers under palace.

Custodes versus Astartes. It reminds me of when the CD first came out. OG CDs. scratch them with a scouring pad, still worked. Sticky fingerprints, still worked. That is the Custodes. Tiniest scratch, unreadable. fingerprint anywhere, unreadable. Silently rot on the self if left in light for a month or two, unreadable. That's the mass produced, cut price Astarte's in a nutshell.

Very funny that one of the first things Guilliman does when he comes back is to undo all the rules for the Custodes he put in place before he left

A Dan Abnett book covering the eyes of the emperor would be a good

I really like the concept of cultured warrior demi god, maybe they do miniatures and wargames in their free time

I generally do either matte black or chocolate browns. Oh different primer.

Super excited for this video, loving all the vids!

They may be unique, artisan and hand crafted but in my head canon they are cone heads.

Nice one Ian. Thanks!

The custodes are the coolest faction, aside from the grey knights. I guess the big question is what happened to Valdor? Will he come back? Is he dead? Only James Workshop knows.

Great video as ever, but I was hoping you'd mention their role in bringing the Age of Apostasy to an end, just because it was one of my favourite bits of fluff growing up - but I also realise it's hard to explain that briefly as part of a broader video.

Custodes are not immortal, they age very slowly but they do age, and lose efficiency which causes them to leave active service.

Excellent overview of the ten thousand.

fairly new to 40k law, u mAKE it easier to understand and add lore to my armies, keep doing what ur doing ian

You are our favorite Custodian of Lore! Great video as always, Cheers all!

The intro gives chills as always

Mira will be swooning again over the Custodes 🥳

The Custodes were also meant to be Emperor Chris's friends.

...and the most famous of them, the Captain general, better known as "Kitten"...

I shall save this for my painting session tomorrow. (Only 1 and a half allurus to go)

45 seconds in and you're mighty close to heresy there, Ian.

Love the grin in the thumbnail...😂

I love their reverse hot dog car

Once again Ian really looking our for the little guys...making the MOST boring faction interesting😂 but ngl this makes the custodes better than what I've read. I just finished Valdor and Master of Mankind and was so disappointed by how careless and uncaring they are

The goat uploads another banger vid The "greatest" of "humanity" by many metrics, despising what it has become. Love them

Lets go

Its a common thing that the supper humans are out of touch and removed from the people they protect nice

If you 'sometimes donate even an entire generation' , then where does the next generation come from? Sorry, forgot to turn off thinking in time 😅 It's 40k after all.

I'm doing my part to please Algo

Thank you. 🙏

Learned more from this than many of the 40K and Heresy book I read. Nice video. Keep up the good work.

Love your stuff Ian. Could you do videos like these for all the xenos factions please?

It never makes sense that they are so detached from and dismissive of base humanity....these folks are supposed to be educated philosopher warrior kings--how do they not have a love for humanity?....Or is the intent for this to be another example of the rot of the Imperium?

Ever since I learned about the Custodes, I've wondered how they have maintained and recovered their numbers after the Emperor was interred on the Golden Throne. I always assumed the Emperor kept the process of their creation a secret, even if it was a collaborative effort with other scientists on Old Earth similar to the Primarch project. Someone knows how, and i can't imagine the Custodes are relegated to doing it themselves, but since they are all savants if science, politics, philosophy and so in, maybe they do?

"Golden Barstards."

The golden throne is knackered. The Emperor's going to die.

The strongest warriors and most knowledgeable scholars in all the Imperium, and their only concern is guarding a corpse in the most fortified part of the Imperium. Definitely a bit of fridge satire, but humorous nonetheless once you get it.

A lot of mfs in the comments haven't touched grass in 10,000 years

Just a question; how does a nine foot warrior HIDE as an Eye of the Emperor?

Great video as ever, I'm sure it won't attract a bunch of foaming manchildren.

Time for the Golden Boys and Girls to shine again!

None. He left them none.

The Custodes see the hoi poloi as ignorant religionists ... and yet for thousands of years they have but one focus of adoration ... and live in the shadow of that one time they failed Him ...

What’s interesting is that as much as the custodes are so foreign in emotion and empathy- these guys and girls are still full of personality. Some custodes laugh and joke with the lessers, while some are so earth shatteringly upset about how much the imperium has fallen- even valdor had his favorites and the pseudo friendship he had with the wolf king Russ was always so neat to read about, it just goes to show that despite how far removed from humanity they try to be, to their core- there’s still some human in them and it’s that humanity that makes them so interestingly tragic

Comment for Algo

comment for the comment god!

I'm sure this comments section will be full of mature and well-adjusted people

Banama

So... Roman Imperial Praetorian Guard in look and purpose that uses troop definitions from Alexander and a random Spartan nod just because of a movie with hot guys... You can clearly see that 40K lore was written by brits :)

Before the Horus Heresy books I thought they were much more strong than regular Astartes, but in novels like The First Heretic (not sure about the name in English) they perform.. meh, not great.

They don't start in the ranks as juniors, but there are veterans. They don't age, but become slow in body and spirit. Okay? 🤔

Talking over closing credits is saomthing that makes your channel extremely british.

I take a break from 40K for 6 months, and I come back and now the Custodes are women now. 😂 . . . . And Ian acts like it's totally normal! 😂

Trans rights are human rights.

Golden boys club!

Ah the Custodes, the brotherhood of the emperor’s finest

The Girl Power squad

Femstodes doesn't appeal to me. So I don't collect them, or read their stories. I don't even acknowledge their existence. This seems to me, to be where my input ends. I get people are upset, on both "sides". All things pass. Try to be kinder to each other.

and you went there...

Best brotherhood recruted from Terras nobles sons.

@2:30 I noticed you incorrectly stated ‘men and women’ of the custodes…🤔

Female custodies mentioned Unsubscribed

Yeah. So, like, fascist golden dolls. Cool. Sounds like the universe would be better without them.

you are very boring to listen to

I don't know about this "there have always been female custodes" retcon. If GW is sincere about this then they could have made the new custodes model female, would have been an obvious move I think. But do we want to collect and paint female custodes? They would have to be burly and brawny(see realworld athletes) to keep up with their male counterparts and I think alot of hobbyists, if not most, buy female miniatures to collect and paint feminine physiques. But if the custodes are created differently compared to Astartes, as I might find out when I continue to watch the video, and the female Custodes are feminine then the males are inferior by a certain amount because they are more muscular, broader and larger targets and easier to hit by the foe. So to end my musings, I REALLY don't know about this move. But hey! it might turn out to be really popular and grow the fanbase, what do I know.

Adeptus Custodes are male

40 K is dying, and the custodians are the reason why