Warhammer 40K: Grand Masters of the Grey Knights
Today we look at the present and past Masters who rule over the Grey Knights, dread Daemon Hunters of Titan.
Grand Master is one of the highest ranks to which a Grey Knight can rise, below only the Supreme Grand Master. They are armed and armoured in the best the Imperium has to offer and benefit from hundreds of years of experience in fighting the daemonic. They are devastating in close combat, especially when backed up by a retinue of the feared Grey Knights Terminators. While all Grey Knights are psykers, the Grand Master’s skills are honed to such a fine point that he can wield his psychically attuned Force Weapon with exceptionally terrific power. The Grand Master is certainly one of the greatest warriors in the entirety of the Imperium.
The Grey Knights only have a total of eight Grand Masters at any one time. This number is derived from the eight founding Space Marines which Malcador the Sigilite brought to Titan.
Each Grand Master has final command of a Brotherhood, although operational command is often left to the Brother-Captain. The Grand Master will rarely take full command of his Brotherhood. Only for a battle which is considered too perilous for even the hardened skills of a Brother-Captain to handle.
Voldus, Grand Master of the 3rd Brotherhood
Voldus, Grand Master of the 3rd Brotherhood is the newly promoted Grand Master of the Grey Knights Chapter‘s Third Brotherhood, who attained his rank after its previous commander Valdar Aurikon was killed by the Daemon Primarch Magnus. When the Thirteenth Black Crusade began, Voldus came to the defense of the Realm of Ultramar, when it was invaded by Abaddon the Despoiler‘s Chaos hordes, and served as a trusted adviser to the resurrected Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Guilliman.
In battle, Voldus wields the mighty Nemesis Daemon Hammer Malleus Argyrum.
Kaldor Draigo
Kaldor Draigo, Supreme Grand Master of the Grey Knights is the 48th and current Supreme Grand Master of the Grey Knights. He wields the legendary Titansword.
As a simple Battle-Brother, Draigo banished the Daemon Prince M’kar the Reborn on Acralem.
In 901.M41, during the Battle of Kornovin, Draigo would become Supreme Grand Master of the Grey Knights after the Daemon Prince Mortarion killed his predecessor, Geronitan. The act made Draigo fly into a rage, who assaulted the Daemon Primarch and was only able to defeat him by uttering the true name the Emperor had originally intended for him. The Primarch’s body was shattered by this and Draigo carved his predecessor’s name into his heart – an insult Mortarion has never forgotten, as his spirit is now recuperating in the Immaterium), where he prepares to kill Draigo once and for all.
However, after a second confrontation with M’kar on Acralem, Draigo has been cursed to a life trapped within the Warp, doomed to walk within the Realm of Chaos itself. To remain pure while constantly assailed by Chaos shows fortitude and personal strength that is beyond measure. He has undertaken many great exploits within the Warp: slaying the great Bloodthirster Kar’Voth, setting fire to the jungles of Nurgle‘s domain, defeating the six chosen Daemonettes of Slaanesh, the Six Sisters, and destroying the fortress of the Lord of Change M’Kachan. He also appeared to battle alongside the Dark Angels in the Pandorax Campaign.
But while Draigo lives, he will prevail and one day, he will return. In 999.M41, Draigo returned alone to Acralem to free it from M’kar, hoping to end the Chapter’s ancient feud with the Daemon.
Vorth Mordrak
Vorth Mordrak is a Grand Master of the Grey Knights. He leads the Second Brotherhood and is entitled as Admiral of the Fleet. As such he has command over the Chapter’s fleet based assets, similar to the 4th Company Captain of regular chapters known as Master of the Fleet.
The only survivor of the Fortress world of Mortain after its destruction by the Red Corsairs Chaos Space Marines, the guilt of that survival gnawed at him daily and visions of his fallen comrades haunted him. Fearing he had become corrupted, Mordrak submitted himself to the Rituals of Purity, but was judged clean of taint. Still the manifestations plagued him, almost to the point of insanity.
On the world of Ralindri, Mordrak would be separated from his Battle-Brothers by a teleporter malfunction. Plunged directly into a plain swarming with Daemons, he was saved by two shining Terminators. Found alone amidst scores of slain Daemons, none could explain Mordrak’s deliverance or who his rescuers had been.
Eventually, as these mysterious allies continued to appear wherever Mordrak fought. It became clear who they were. They were his comrades who had fallen on Mortain, given form and voice by Mordrak’s own psychic might. Mortain’s fallen had become bound to him at the moment of their deaths, whispering to him to take revenge on Huron Blackheart, master of the Red Corsairs. So did Mordrak gather to him a force of Battle-Brothers and depart Titan, determined to lay to rest the fallen that plagued him. Though he continually hunts Huron Blackheart near the The Maelstrom, Mordrak has not abandoned his greater mission and still responds to Daemonic incursions across the Galaxy.
Other Notable Grand Masters
Current
- Vardan Kai – 1st Brotherhood
- Vorth Mordrak – 2nd Brotherhood
- Voldus – 3rd Brotherhood (pictured above)
- Drystann Cromm – 4th Brotherhood
- Rothwyr Morvans – 5th Brotherhood
- Anval Laraon – 6th Brotherhood
- Covan Leorac – 7th Brotherhood
- Aidan Perdron – 8th Brotherhood
Historic
- Khyron
- Mandulis – Died fighting Ghargatuloth on Khorion IX
- Joros – Grand Master of the 8th Brotherhood. Personally slain by Logan Grimnar during the aftermath of the First War for Armageddon
- Valdar Aurikon – 3rd Brotherhood
- Tencendur – Fought in the 13th Black Crusade
- Orias – Grey Knights Dreadnought
- Ganelon – Died fighting Ghargatuloth on Khorion IX
- Malquiant – Died fighting Ghargatuloth on Khorion IX
- Qanox – Present during the Exterminatus of Cyrene. Found Gabriel Angelos, innocent of the heresy tainting the planet.
Learn More of the Grey Knights
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