Daemonhunters
- – Lord Hephaestos Grudd
Daemonhunters, aka the Ordo Malleus ("Order of the Hammer"), are a branch of the Imperium's Inquisition specifically for hunting the manifestations of the Warp. These are further divided into Inquisitors and a special form of Space Marines known as the Grey Knights. The Inquisitors can be found surrounded by many different branches of the Imperium's Militant forces due to their ability to call on local governance for support. Malleus Inquisitors are probably the oldest ordo of the Inquisition, since the original purpose of the Inquisition was to root out and destroy Chaos. They work with the Ordo Hereticus regularly, where the Witch Hunters deal with Heresy, and the Daemonhunters deal with Chaos, which most of the time ends up being one and the same in most cases where somebody rebels against the Imperium, and then starts summoning Daemons. They are armed with either a Condemner Boltgun, a Combi-Needler or a Null Rod and wear the 'standard-issue' Malleus Power Armour rather than the more common Ignatus Pattern Armour. Certain borderline heretical (read, Stupid) Daemonhunters are known to wield a Daemonblade, which is a Daemon bound to a sword; and a Hellrifle, which fires shards of daemonic shit... Yeah, guess how that is gonna end up. An interesting note is that Daemonhunters are the only non-Space Marines able to wield a Nemesis Force Weapon. You would probably recognise that the majority of Daemonhunters have a hard-on for Nemesis Daemon Hammers. Why that's the case, we have no idea.
The Enemy Beyond[edit]
The Daemonhunters were created right after the Horus Heresy by the decree of the Emperor, acting as a special force of men to fight against Chaos now that it was all out in the open. The Grey Knights were to be the muscle power behind the Inquisitors who were the brains of the operation. Due to the nature of the foe they fight, the Malleus must be hard bastards, totally pure of temptations and sins. Even so most of them slowly go off the rails from all that insanity and most develop mental problems. A great deal of the Malleus's efforts are focused around active chaos regions such as the Eye of Terror and the Maelstrom but they can be fast deployed anywhere where Chaos springs up across the galaxy. Nobody outside of the Inquisition knows about this Ordo (or at least its true mission), minus a few Space Marine Chapter Masters and the High Lords. This allows the Daemonhunters to be one step ahead of Chaos whenever it pokes its ugly head out. However, this also makes this Ordo the darkest as well. To the people outside of the Inquisition, they only know of the Ordo Malleus as the Inquisitors who monitor the other Inquisition Ordos, masking its true mission from the wider Imperium. When someone not important finds out about the Malleus's Secret Weapon (read: Grey Knights), they can be subject to execution to prevent the spread of their existence. It really only happens often when someone discovers the Grey Knights, considering that Cadia, you know, fights Chaos on a regular basis and its main export is soldiers that go all over the wider Imperium, so it would be ridiculous not to mention be incredibly wasteful to destroy all that manpower.
The First War for Armageddon[edit]
When Angron and the World Eaters decided to rampage all over the Imperium and landed on Armageddon, it tooks the Steel Legion, the Space Wolves, and the Daemonhunters to banish him. The Inquisitor in charge, deciding not to risk the existence of the Grey Knights to the wider imperial folk decided to sterilise and inter the survivors of the war into work camps in the wider Imperium. This pissed off the Space Wolves to no end, starting a mini civil-war within the Imperium. It only ended when Bjorn the Fell Handed managed to talk down Logan Grimnar and his brothers. The Inquisition, as a result, keeps an arms length away from Fenris at all times.
Siege of Vraks[edit]
Vraks is another instance that involved the Ordo Malleus. Basically, an Ecclesiarchal cardinal named Xaphan and his assistant, Deacon Mamon, decided to raise a crusade in the Emperor's name. This obviously violated the Decree Passive and drew the attention of the Ordo Hereticus. They sent a Vindicare to take care of him, but his rosarius protected him from the shot. He used the assassination attempt to state that traitors and heretics tried to usurp him, causing Vraks to rebel from the Imperium. This wouldn't usually cause much of a problem except for the fact that Vraks was a Munitions world used to supply Cadia. It drew the Hereticus even further as well as the Death Korps of Krieg. Things escalated even further when the previously mentioned Deacon Mamon turned out to be an Alpha Legion spy who called backup in the form of the World Eaters, the Death Guard, and Chaos Titan Legions. The Inquisitor in charge, Hector Rex, went to Vraks with a few Grey Knights and cleansed it. However, the munitions were used up in the war, as well as the planet being corrupted by the influences of Khorne and Nurgle, so it was placed under Malleus Quarantine.
Notable Members[edit]
See Also[edit]
- Grey Knights
- For those interested in historical matters, check out their tactics in the 3rd Edition: Warhammer 40,000/3rd Edition Tactics/Daemonhunters
- Incidentally, the old rules are still available, since GW released them online for some reason, along with the Witch Hunters Codex, which has now been taken down,
presumably the only reason the Daemonhunters Codex hasn't been removed is because they've forgotten about it, or it's their advance apology for Our Spiritual Liege.They've both been removed now, but thanks to the internet archive can still be read and downloaded, GW's Updated rules can be found here: Updated Codex: Daemonhunters - Exorcists
- Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters: The vidya gaem.
