Are The Grey Knights Truly Incorruptible? - 40K Theories 

UPDATE : As of the March 2021 edition of White Dwarf Magazine, the Exorcists have been retconned to being an Imperial Fist successor chapter, as opposed to a Grey Knights successor as they were previously stated to be within the story "Headhunted".

"Rule 43: The more beautiful and pure a thing is, the more satisfying it is to corrupt it." Grey Knights are therefore bait

In the novel The Emperor’s Gift, the main protagonist stated the no Grey Knight will fall to Chaos because they simply choose not to fall, which implies that it’s a choice and that their indoctrination specifically prepares them to make the choice never to fall.

SKARBRAND HAS BEGUN SEEING A THERAPIST. SKARBRAND HATES HIS THERAPIST!

It will be hilarious if the grey knight in DoW is actually Blood Ravens with stolen Grey Knight armor

One thing that is to take within consideration is the Intrumentation of the "dishonest narrator" which is used frequently in 40K lore, examples in the book Galaxy in Flames where Garvial Loken admits that space marines do know fear they are simply trained to ignore it Where as in later novels and within the 8th edition space marine codex it states that marines are incapable of fear This could have been used to stretch the truth of the purity of the grey knights chapter "Just because it is canon does not mean it is true"

The answer is Yes! and Doubt is heresy!

one of them literally wields a Daemon-Weapon into battle and the sheer fact that Kaldor Draigo's a thing

After all that warpdust, i'm pretty sure Kaldor Draigo is beyond salvation.

Great video and I’m a fan of your work, but you forgot about the gray knight from the omnibus, who allowed himself to become corrupted in the third book. In addition, there is also the gray knight that abandon captured at the end of the Pandora’s novel. The gray knight he captured was one of the original founders, who originated from the gray knights.

Going by the Khornate Knights and their habit of painting their armor with Sororitas blood, I’m gonna go with “no”. Then, there’s the Dreadknight. Only the twisted minds of the Ruinous Powers could come up with so silly a design.

I honestly believe that maybe the Grey Knights are taking straight from one of the Lost Legion Primarchs. Which is why they are sooo secretive.

First impressions from title alone: I would say yes, they are corruptible. But not easily enough to even be attempted. Similar to corrupting the Tau, its far too difficult to be worth it. Just kill them. Off hand I can vaguely remember a story of a grey knight traveling to the realm of Slaanesh to fight him/her one on one. He made it through he actually made it Slaanesh he did in fact bend the knee instead of engaging in combat. It only took the full force of Slaanesh to turn a single grey knight. Post watch: Hey hey, would ya look at that.

Like all things made by man, some are good, some are bad. I would say that no grey knights are immune to corruption. Their training provided only grants them the skills and fortitude to withstand corruption, whether they submit it to is entirely a different matter.

Could Grey Knight gene seed actually be from the Angel (proto-primarch) by any chance? I mean, he was also made to combat daemons/chaos.

This reminds me of my idea for a Homebrew Grey Knight thing to make me want them. The Knights Umbra. A group of Grey Knights who actually fell and we're exhiled to retain the Chapter's honor into the Warp as a form of pentitant crusade. But they were able to fight their way out and made the realization of "we may have become shadows of our former Grey Knight heraldry, but we are not below giving up." So they keep going as a somewhat successor Chapter wearing black instead of grey.

Every single video you make is fascinating. Your narration is top notch!

Yes commissar, this video. Right here!

Yes. As long as they have a tanker full of sister's blood.

It's possible for a grey knight to be corrupted by chaos. The fact that only Castellan Crowe can wield Antwyr, is evidence to me that Greyknights can be corrupted. We have to understand that, the majority of text on the prowess of Greyknights and Spacemarines alike, are propaganda mixed in with the lore. Especially in the codexes. Being uncorruptible is propaganda and based off the fact that if there were records of a greyknight being corrupted, we haven't seen it yet or it hasn't been official reported yet. It may never be reported official just because of the fall out and back lash of what possibility of a greyknight being corrupted could mean and what it may speak of the Emperor. I theorize that the Emperor that made a bargain with the Chaos gods to make the primarchs isn't the same as the one that came back from the warp to initiate the Primaris project. I theorize he is a chaos god hell bent on being the only one god and wants to starve off all the other chaos gods. The heretic astartes don't quote "death to the false Emperor" for nothing. This very statement suggests the Emperor is an imposter and not just someone who's authority they resist. But all of this is for another video I suppose. 😉 But a flaw of a greyknight would point at a flaw within the Emperor. A Primarch being flawed isn't a direct correlation between to a greyknight potentially being flawed because a Primarch was mixed with the geneseed of the Emperor and chaos. A grey knight is a mix between the Emperor's genes, a primarchs genes, and will and soul to be nothing but loyal to the Emperor. But this still doesn't make them incorruptible. It just means that the reason a Primarch is corruptible isn't the same reason a greyknight maybe corruptible. A Primarch is corruptible mainly because chaos was planted within them since gestation for one. But back on topic. When it comes to propaganda, we know the infallible perfection of the Emperor is propaganda, because the Emperor has done many imperfect things. Typically anything spoken in absolutes in 40k is either just boasting or the propaganda of a species. (I.e. can not die, unbeatable, incorruptible, unstoppable).

My theory is that one or more of the Grey Knights' 666 initiation rituals is used to establish a permanent psychic link with the Emperor who bestows a level of protection against Chaos.

Love the content but I feel compelled to say that the theme music sounds like the kind of thing I would hear on a history show in the middle of the day in the 90's when I was off school sick.

On the table top they die superfast when fighting deamons The lore ... It was interesting and for a side army of mine, inspires me to try them out one last time

In Hammer of Daemons we get the closest to a Grey Knight being corrupted by far. Justicar Alaric is trapped on a Khornate Daemon world, is forced to fight gladiatorial combat while wearing a Khornate collar which negates any pysker abilities the Grey Knights, which alone makes him more vulnerable to corruption as Alaric himself admits in the book. And if that wasn't enough, the bad guy, some evil duke, tried to get Alaric possessed by a Daemon of Tzeentch and while Alaric pulls through, it exhausted him so much it MADE HIM INSANE. For a time anyway, and while he was insane he basically became a Berzerker, just not outright dedicated to Khorne but still pretty much a Berzerker, even getting some type of Chaotic tattoo on him during this time. Hell, Alaric himself wasn't able to stabilize on his own, an Eldar character who was with the group had to pitch in so they'd both survive. If that doesn't stretch the incorruptible claim, idk what will. Hell by some definitions, you could say for a time a Grey Knight was in fact corrupted, just by having his mind broken, not by a true choice.

At the end was that a reference to the silver knight story slaanesh and what is theorized to be kaldor draigo

Love the video. I have for sometime thought of Chaos Corruption as not a matter of if, but when usually. If I have to place a bet on how at least one Grey Knight falls to the Ruinous Powers, I’d say the Blade of Antwyr influencing a new Warden or some of the standard Knights prolonged exposure to in battle being the most likely.

Its stated a couple of times in 'Castellan' that 'normal' Grey Knights (Terminators) wince when near Antwyr.

I have never been so early to one of your videos! PRASE THE THRONE! A good way to fall asleep is with a theory! Also a question, what would happen if the Sword of Antwir and Drach’nyen were to clash with each other?

Knight of Slaanesh?

Great video 40k Theories, and a knight of darkness

as always great work thank you

If the Exorcists are invisible to demons, the Grey Knights are a giant middle finger.

It’s a school night, one in the morning, and I’m gonna watch some heretical video in the Emperors names just to criticize it cause Warhammer... seems legit.

Short answer no

an individual Grey Knight may not be immune to corruption, but considering that they are carefully monitored it's not likely to happen because should any of them start to show any signs of corruption, that individual would be purged.

They can't resist if they encounter slaanesh face to face, as i assume the silver knight (who entered slaanesh' "home" managed to get through all the challenges of slaanesh, but immediately kneeled before slaanesh when he encountered it.) Was a grey knight. Which strengthens the theory that no one can resist the horrible perfection of slaanesh.

The best of the best of the best, sir!

Corruption is what happens when the Grey Knights apply lower standards to recruitment with the Excorcist Chapter. They might as well start recruiting Necrons and Tau.

I've always felt like the Grey Knights being "incorruptible" came not from arbitrary immunity, but from having every aspect of their being devoted solely to resisting temptation, not so much as allowing it purchase upon their minds. The Grey Knights may be colloquially known as incorruptible, but the many safeguards within their own Chapter (such as the rigorous requirements to become a Purifier, or the librarians standing guard over the Sanctum Sanctorum) prove that they do not even trust members of their own Chapter to be immune to daemonic influence and thus they stand perpetually on guard against it... and that's their truest strength, knowing how vulnerable they can be, and by sheer force of will never allowing the enemy a chance to slip past their guard

The fact that it is possible that exorcists can fall to chaos prove that they are descend from the word bearers that the grey knights.

If you read the gray knights omnibus, that features Alaric the Justicar,he is fitted with a collar of khorne and is possessed by a demon but later purges it from himself when the collar is removed, and he is able to return to the gray knights.

the issue with 40k is that it is difficult to separate "the hype", from whats real. one moment they'll tell you that space marines are incapable of fear, and the next moment a custodes is watching big E get gored by the echo of the first murder and it scares the hell out of him.. (who could blame him though lol) I'm sure that space marines are far more RESISTANT to fear then a human, but if they are to be believable characters and not just a bunch of silly mary sue's in power armor then they still need to have a mostly full range of understandable human emotions and flaws. it's the same question as "could a custodes fall to chaos" sure probably, its just extremely unlikely he would, and that if he did it would be very difficult for him to continue living for any length of time.

No mention of Brother Brutus from the (6th? 7th?) edition Chaos Daemon Codex, page 45?

What about the Silver Knight Of Slaanesh?

Mr. 40K Theories, this video and its question has piqued the interest of certain organizations within the Imperium. The Inquisition is sending an Interrogator team lead by The Rupert to get to the bottom of this and.....clear your good name. Please stay where you are until their arrival.

Can the Necron flayer virus infect other species?

the 666th chapter that has there aspirants go through 666 trials hu..... I couldn't imagine a reason why we would ever hear of their corruption.

the grey knights also have runes etched into every inch of the inside of thier power armor that burns when the taint of chaos is around them, when chapter master mandulis of the grey knights had slain Ghargatuloth the runes inside the armor left burn marks on Mandulis's bones as stated in the book by Ben Counter, Grey Knights, so i feel if a grey knight did become chaos corrupted in that moment those runes inside thier own armor would burn them to death

Love your work! On a side note, has anyone seen or know of what happened to Vaults of Tera?

Chuck that sword into a black hole. Indestructible or not, it'd be trapped for eternity lol

Saying the Grey Knights are immune to corruption is kind of like saying the Death Guard were immune to disease. There are three ways I would imagine a Grey Knight falling to corruption, the first is constant torture, not regular torture, i'm talking about the level of shit that finally got Mortarion to give himself and his legion to Nurgal, i'm talking constant and unending mental and physical pain of the absolute worst form that they would have no ability to bring to an end or the ability to end their own lives to make stop. The second is the "Frog in a boiling pot" method, a slow, gradual, and unnoticed corruption as they are made to do more and more corrupt things over a long period of time until it becomes normal. The last is a "It's for the greater good" style of corruption, where the grey knight in question must choose between becoming corrupt and something they would wish to save from destruction, corruption, ect.

Hopefully we only get mind wiped after watching this and not shot in the back of the head.

I’m sure that were one of the Grey Knights to fall to Chaos, it would be a major event detailed in some official narrative from GW.

Good stuff! Just finished reading Castellan myself! It's a decent read, a page turner, and I don't know why it gets so many bad reviews! Definitely not as good as anything in the Grey Knights Omnibus. But that's no surprise, as I feel that Ben Counter is the very best of the Warhammer 40K authors. I'm actually reading The Emperor's Gift right now, which isn't as good as Castellan. Like Death Watch, the Grey Knights can be saviors as well as utterly ruthless murderers, having no problem wiping out Imperial regiments just for having witnessed the actions of chaos, or even knowing of the Grey Knights existence, or of kidnapping millions upon millions of children to test their potential to become Grey Knights, and then brutally disposing of the vast majority of them!

The Grey Knights even took on the Daemon Prinarch Angron (think gamma irradiated Conan the Barbarian)...a lot of those memories (e.g. persecution and mistreatment) they'd probably WANT erased. | 3:20 - They're certainly more resistant than most, but like the Sisters of Battle that gets formed later...immunity is debateable.

Gene stealer's corruption is shown as potent enough to corrupt a space marine. One of book in word bearer series, Marduk's terminator brother was infected with genestealer gene and dark mechanicus tech priest told them his geneseed is corrupt. So in that remark, brother asks for execution.

If I remember correctly, there is some apocryphal information about Grey Knights being corrupted, but unfortunately I can’t remember the source at the time of writing this.

Even if it is in the realm of possibility in the lore, I still really hope they never explore this in Cannon novels. It would massively take away from the very identity of the Grey Knights

Unless there is control methods that have not been mentioned in the novels and I think it is possible for individual great night's to fall to chaos. However the great nights as a whole would never embrace chaos.

Custodes:......COUGH!

how did you ot mention silver warrior in slaaneshes palace? or the passage in one of the daemon codex that talks about a changeling sowing the seeds of heresy into the grey knights

There is a story in the 8th edition Chaos Daemons codex of a ‘silver knight’ that managed to travel through the outer rings in Slaanesh’s domain only to falter and kneel when he got to Slaanesh. Pretty sure it is a reference to a Grey Knight

Please do a video on the Months of Shame

There was a story that a Grey Knight had a hint of doubt in what he was doing when he was ordered to kill all of the escaping planet ships just because there was a slight chance that the Changeling might be on one of the ships, suggesting that he might be corrupted at a later date.

I think the Chaos Entity “Master of Mankind” will elevate the Grey Knights into as servants of the Warp in his image. Shout out to Stephanie Swanson✊🏽

im surprised Kaldor Draigo didnt tie into this somehow. i recall a video covering how he could potentially be the silver knight that slaanesh has under its control. that right there would be ultimately your corrupted grey knight, if indeed that is the case.

The Silver Knight of Slaanesh is the story of a Grey Knight corrupted by Chaos. A Grey Knight powerful enough to invade the Realm of She Who Thirsts. Only one Grey Knight fits that description. Kaldor Draigo.

Question (Hypothetical): If a race of machines, not unlike the TRANSFORMERS, had found and STC and kept it in good working order, then if the Imperium of Man learned of this would they at least ask for their lost technology back or would they just throw down everything to acquire the first known example of a fully intact STC. My feeling is they would throw everything at them without thinking that these machines may be more advanced on their own than the STC can provide them (Cybertronians are essentially living technology, after all) , or they learned most of or even everything they are form the STC. Worse for the IoM, the Cybertronians could easily deduce how much of a problem the IoM would become for everyone everywhere, if they got this device. But they might also have strategies that counter anything the STC can provide the IoM. So, the second question becomes would the Cybertronians willingly hand over the device or refuse citing humanity's projected threat to the Cybertronians and everyone else. Worse, knowing how dangerous the IoM is, would the Cybertronians even bother answering and just attack and summarily destroy the STC? Obviously, the IoM would attack to get the STC and likely try to stamp out a stronghold of "Men of Iron". I am just curious if anyone has any other idea as to how this scenario could play out

dunno about the genestealer part, i think taking control of someone with warp based powers is not corruption because the one being aflicted doesnt have to ''give in'' to any temptation its more akeen to overpowering someone physically in my opinion, that was the same as if a huge tiranyd had won in some melee fight against the grey knight, and it shows because he himself requested an execution instead of remaining corrupted, because once the genestealer was dead the influence was no more, so personally i think it doesnt count, that shows greyknights are defeatable but not corruptable imo

The genestealer thing is still a form of mind control, while falling to Chaos is an actual corruption of one´s soul and mind. Edit: by the way i got a call from the Ordo Malleus just now, they want you to meet with a representative on a black ship on your nearest spaceport.

Clicked on this video faster than a tech priest grabs a cyberdong

Jeans stealers can evolve with their assimilation techniques to be what some effective on Astarties... Maybe that guy was not wearing his helmet, so the Jeans stealers efdected his genome... thus he was not himself anymore, he was not Grey Knight anymore...

One of them has been blinded, dismembered, mutilated, stitched to a null and left in the bowels of the vengeful spirit for an unimaginable length of time and still hasn't succumbed to chaos. If not truly incorruptible I'd say they're fairly close to it.

I'll go with no, but they are pretty damn close.

You can’t really corrupt someone if they’re too busy burying a large sword into your face.

how to beat chaos... make everyone believe theyre all dead and no one is corruptible anymore

Out of curiosity, how do the grey knights compare to the adeptus custodes? And how do thses guys compare to the new spacemarines? Can someone tell me???

Given the disdain with which Adeptes Custodes regard Space Marines, how do they feel about Grey Knights?

The book Emperor's gift covers this topic well

Question that popped into my mind with this video... Has a Blank ever fallen to Chaos? Also would a Blank just cause Ork weapons to stop fully working?

wait, he can't put the sword down? Not even to like... eat a sandwich?

An idea for a theory: What happens when you are captured by the Emperor's Children?

I don't know specific details of their training but that is stated to be part of the reason why they are 'immune' to corruption, not just geneseed. Primarchs were corrupted through various means and were not specifically created to resist warp influences (of which they are partly made of) which is not the case the GK. It's not as good comparison a comparison as the video makes it out to be. Hell, primarchs weren't even supposed to know about the warp for fear of the consequences while GK's were brought up on using the warp against demons like chanting their true names.

If it were at all possible to corrupt them, I'd imagine any Grey Knights that faltered even slightly would not hesitate to end his own life. However the lore I've read seems to indicate that any recruit that failed to show anything less absolute contempt for Chaos would be weeded out by the 666 trials before they could ever become a full fledged astartes.

Are there any stories about Custodes being corrupted?

If their gene seeds are from the Emperor, then they should be on the same power level of the primarchs and have army leveling psychic might. Its probably a gene seed from one of the lost primarchs which the Inquisition found too useful in the fight against chaos to throw away.

Were any of the Primarchs minds actually corrupted without them deciding it to happen? In that case, since the Primarchs were more of free mindset than the combat hypnotized mass production Astartes, comparing them to the memory wiped over-the-top hypnotized Grey Knights doesn't mean much. A Grey Knight, or what the heck even the Emperor Himself, could decide to let a demon "possess" one's body but the soul would forever stay anathema to the demon.

Pretty certain in the Grey Knights books by Ben Counter there is hushed talk of a fallen brother (fallen to chaos that is!) Don't quote me but I'm fairly sure.

Would the chapter recognise a taint early enough? Having an attitude of "it never happens" might lead to ignoring stuff huh? Have there been Grey Knights being executed for potential taint? or doubts concerning their purity? or because they were under the influence of a taint even if it's not sure if they were tainted themselves?

I didn't sleep for two days!!

Fuh-whaaaaaat?! Capable of being corrupted?! I sense Heresy afoot on this Channel!:)

The Grey Knights *could* be corrputed, but it'd take the direct attention a greater warp entity. It's somethinf that really wouldn't happen unless something really stupid was happening.

Good video, but I think there is something you forget when it comes to the Grey Knights, but it seems to be a common mistake. Focusing on Nature while forgetting Nuture. The Genetic background of the Grey Knights might not be what makes the incorruptible, but rather the culture in which they belong to is. Likewise, their stringent recruitment process and brutal training would naturally weed out the weak while fortifying the mental strength of those who pass.

Though I’m not a big fan of the grey knights but questioning their loyalty… unacceptable, the geneseed of the Emperor does not have flaws.

Why would they cary the sword with them? Why not just launch it into the star of a dead system?

Question: so we know that at least one Grey Knight got close enough to Slaanesh to kill her. If the imperium were to send, say, a f@ckton of robots/servitors or the most incorruptible Knights they have, could they kill her? Would they even be able to hold out long enough to do so?

I'm doing a conversion of a Grey Knight into a night lords champion

Given enough time and pressure anything will break. The Grey Knights won't be that exception.

the Inquisition wants to know your location...

I been in multiple forums about 40k and some 40k videos, I have notice that the fans of the emperor are way more hostile and tend to be more offensive toward alien or chaos fans, meanwhile alien or chaos fans tend to be way more nice and friendlier