Xeno-Assassin - Lord Solar BARELY ESCAPES The Norn Emissary

[@TheRamoach]

cmon...NOTHING should be able to casually flick custodes aside apart from threats like demon primarches. These custodes died like they were imperial guardsmen.

[@thefeatherbird_]

You vastly overestimate the power of custodes. Do we need to go down the list of the amount of times they've had their asses beat? They're glorified space marines.

[@TheRamoach]

@@thefeatherbird_ They outstrip space marines in every way. They're individually hand crafted to be the pinnacle of what a human can physically and mentally be. A naked custode effortlessly beat up 3 ogryn and broke ones arms with a shrug. 6 of them held off a hive fleet tendril. They were a constant blur of movement and anything that came close died. They're not unbeatable, but in this reading they died laughably easily.

[@thefeatherbird_]

@TheRamoach funnily enough, 6 did not hold off a hive tendril. They were backed by the navy but 4 were still simultaneously slaughtered by the swarmlord and a chapter of space marines had to come rescue the 2 survivors as the planet around them was consumed. They've been beaten by space marines just as often than they've killed them. A naked world eater beat a fully armored custodes to death, With his bare hands, a pre-corrupted Argel Tal sliced ones head off and stole his spear and later went on to kill an entire squad of them after he was possessed. In their own watchers of the throne series, Valerion doubts he would be able to beat the minotaurs chapter master Asterion Moloc in a dual and later the only thing that stops 5 custodes + 5 sisters of silence from being slaughtered by 10 minotaurs is intervention from a high lord of terra. They might be custom made to be a bit faster and tougher than the average marine but in practice its been shown to not be enough, they've been slaughtered by harlequins, drukhari, genestealers, even orks. The lore does not support them being the unstoppable supermen the fandom likes to believe they are, they never have been portrayed as that. In this specific instance, 6 custodes + 1 gunship died to the same type of creature that had just killed nearly 20 dreadnoughts. That one lived, this one did not. Id say the custodes were shown to be pretty damn impressive here compared to their usual feats.

[@TheRamoach]

@@thefeatherbird_ I don't remember them having backup but i'll take your word for it. Regardless, they were surrounded and in constant combat, so the firepower was likely irrelevant. What is relevant is this line which I pulled from the actual scene we're talking about: "They were evenly matched. Opposites. Mirrors. One the pinnacle of human genetic mastery, the other a crescendo of accelerated hyper-evolution. One was golden, the other base." A custode is being stated as a literal swarmlord's equal. In your other exaples of how weak custodes apparently are, you include a very early bit of literature on the custodes before they were given a power boost in the lore. Come on, an unarmoured chaos marine punching through the same type of armour the emperor wears and can deflect anti tank munitions is laughable. That's on par with the Grey knights killing battle sisters and smearing their blood on their armour to ward off nurgle corruption. And in the case of the minotaurs, I'm almost positive that it wasnt 5 custodes vs 10 minataurs. I've read that book (emperors gift? watchers of the throne? I forget). Although I grant you that Valerian was caucious of their chapter-master. On that note however, it's been theorised that he is in fact a custode himself, especially due to his stature and the weapon he wields, but I digress. You say they've never been shown to be unstoppable supermen, but I've literally given you examples. And if you need more, remember that one of their number could go toe to toe with primarchs in melee combat (Valdor). They have been depicted as easily killable in the lore on occassion by some thoughtless authors or as sacrificial lambs for the sake of making a big bad look strong, but when you realize who they were made by, for what purpose and what their potential is, it's obvious they're not supposed to be cut down like cattle.

[@thefeatherbird_]

@TheRamoach you haven't given *any* examples of the custodes being supermen, while I've provided several proving they arent much better than an average space marine, and that the average custodes is even inferior to a skilled or well equipped one. And i was wrong, i found the passage in watchers of the throne, and it wasn't 5 custodes and 5 sisters vs 10 marines, it was 6 sisters and 7 custodes vs 10 marines. I was also wrong about 2 custodes surviving the tyranids, only 1 did. And yes, he was escorted out by space marines. I was wrong about swarmy though, he only killed 2 of them while the other 3 were killed by other tyranids. Theres also no evidence Valdor could take a primarch in a fight, he never fought any primarchs. The idea that he could was spawned by forum speculation. Similar to Moloc being a custodes, which is also not something supported by any lore outside of fan theories. And you can deny the lore all you want, but given the fact that its remained consistent into recent books and codexes it doesnt look like you have a leg to stand on.

[@PoliticalJohn]

No, custodians don't die like that.

[@chainsawsubtlety9828]

I gravely dislike any lore that has Custodians dying. Heresy, I say. HERESY!

[@Apothecarion]

And not just one. MULITPLE. Surely this account is rife with inaccuracies!

[@abrahamjohn7183]

I have no real problem with the interaction in the story, but I just think the wording of the author is very boring.