The Emperor's Sword

Lore & history

There is no more sacred weapon in the Imperium of Man than the Emperor's Sword. Forged by the Master of Mankind himself on Old Earth through a union of Dark Age science and unmatched psychic alchemy, this colossal golden greatsword was carried at the head of the Great Crusade and in the war within the Webway beneath the Imperial Palace. During the climax of the Siege of Terra aboard the Vengeful Spirit, the Emperor wielded the blade in his final duel against the arch-traitor Horus Lupercal—and after the mortally wounded Emperor was interred upon the Golden Throne, the silent greatsword rested across His knees inside the Sanctum Imperialis for ten thousand years.

How the blade passed from the throne room of Terra to the Shrine of Correction on Macragge at the close of the forty-first millennium remains a matter of whispered legend—some accounts credit Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl's secret vaults after the Fall of Cadia, while others speak of the Fallen Angel Cypher carrying a mysterious wrapped greatsword across the Maelstrom. What is beyond dispute is that when Roboute Guilliman was resurrected in the Armour of Fate during the Ultramar Campaign, he took up his Father's flaming blade to lead the Indomitus Crusade.

Whenever Guilliman draws the Emperor's Sword in battle, the dormant steel bursts instantly into a roaring torrent of golden-red fire that shifts in hue from blood-crimson to blinding solar white. To Loyalist Space Marines and Guardsmen, that blazing beacon across the smoke of battle is proof that the Emperor still fights for humanity; to the Daemons of the Chaos Gods, it is the one thing they truly fear—annihilation without resurrection.

Design, mechanism & battlefield effect

From hilt to tip, the Emperor's Sword is a Primarch-scaled greatsword forged from golden-hued auramite and psycho-reactive steel, its crossguard shaped like the spread wings of the Imperial Aquila and its grip bound in crimson leather. Nestled inside the winged crossguard is a complex molecular disruption generator, accompanied by hair-thin energy conduits that trace geometric circuits two-thirds of the way up the flat of the blade.

Yet its mechanical disruption field is only a fraction of its true power. Imbued with a portion of the Emperor's own psychic anathema, the blade ignites with living warp-banishing fire the moment Guilliman's gauntlet closes around the hilt. This flame does not merely burn physical matter; when the edge cuts through ceramite, bone or chitin, it reduces the target to drifting cinders in a fraction of a second.

Most terrifying of all to the servants of Chaos is the sword's metaphysical effect. Normally, when a Daemon is slain in realspace, its physical shell dissolves and its immortal essence simply flows back into the Warp to reform in its patron god's realm. A Daemon cut down by the Emperor's Sword suffers True Death: its warp-essence is utterly consumed and erased from existence forever, permanently diminishing the power of the Chaos God from which it was spawned.

Patterns, variants & doctrine

As a singular, irreplaceable relic of the Master of Mankind, the Emperor's Sword has no mass-produced variants. However, Guilliman wields it in tandem with his other signature weapon, the Hand of Dominion—a massive, master-crafted power gauntlet worn on his left arm that incorporates a heavy rotary bolt-rifle capable of punching through tank armour at range and crushing Dreadnoughts in close combat.

Across the Imperium, countless Chapter relics and Ecclesiarchy icons have been forged in reverent imitation of the Emperor's Sword, most notably the Burning Blade preserved in the Space Marine armouries and the Ardent Blade wielded by Saint Celestine, the Living Saint, whose golden sword likewise blazes with the Emperor's faith-fire to purge Daemons and heretics.

Notable patterns & relic examples

• The War Within the Webway & Siege of Terra: Wielded by the Emperor of Mankind against the endless Daemonic hordes in the Webway and against Warmaster Horus aboard the Vengeful Spirit.
• The Ultramar Campaign & Indomitus Crusade: Bestowed upon resurrected Primarch Roboute Guilliman, Lord Commander of the Imperium, to cleave through the Black Legion and Death Guard.
• The Plague Wars of Ultramar: Used by Guilliman on Iax and Parmenio to inflict irreversible True Death upon the Greater Daemons of Nurgle's Septic Guard, forcing Mortarion to retreat.

Wielded & Fielded By

Characters (7)

• 
  Roboute Guilliman · Primarch of the Ultramarines, Lord Regent of the Imperium
• 
  The Emperor of Mankind · Master of Mankind, Lord of the Imperium
• 
  Lion El'Jonson · Primarch of the Dark Angels
• 
  Malcador the Sigillite · Regent of Terra, First Lord of the Council
• 
  Marneus Calgar · Chapter Master of the Ultramarines, Lord Macragge
• 
  Kaldor Draigo · Supreme Grand Master of the Grey Knights
• 
  Saint Celestine · The Living Saint

Related weapons & vehicles

ChainswordPower FistPower SwordThunder HammerBolter & Bolt RifleMeltagun & Multi-MeltaPlasma Gun & Plasma IncineratorStorm Bolter

Primary Faction

Adeptus Astartes (all Chapters)