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In the hidden vaults beneath the Citadel of Titan, the Techmarines and Master Armoursmiths of the 666th Chapter forge weapons unlike any others in the Imperium of Man. Every single battle-brother of the Grey Knights—the secret Chamber Militant of the Ordo Malleus—is a potent psyker, and every warrior is armed with a Nemesis Force Weapon psychically bonded to his own soul. To a Daemon of the Ruinous Powers, a bolter shell or a mundane chainsword is a mere inconvenience to its physical shell; a Nemesis Force Weapon, by contrast, is an instrument of true existential terror, capable of severing the warp-tether binding a Neverborn entity to realspace and casting it screaming back into the Immaterium.
When a Grey Knight Recruit survives the gruelling trials of Titan and earns his Aegis power armour, he is presented with his personal Nemesis weapon. Over decades and centuries of daemon-hunting campaigns, the psi-conduits woven through the blade grow ever more attuned to the warrior's specific psychic signature. Should a Grey Knight fall in battle, his brothers will fight to the last man to recover both his gene-seed and his Nemesis weapon so that it may be laid to rest in the Sanctuary of Titan rather than sullied by profane hands.
Grand Master Voldus, Warden of the Librarius, wields the Malleus Argyrum—an ancient Nemesis Daemon Hammer that has crushed the skulls of countless Greater Daemons—while Supreme Grand Master Kaldor Draigo carries the reforged shards of the Titansword across the realms of the Warp itself.
Design, mechanism & battlefield effect
Like the Force Weapons carried by Space Marine Librarians and Ordo Malleus Inquisitors, a Nemesis Force Weapon is constructed around a crystalline lattice of psi-reactive materials—threads of psycho-conductive silver, meteoric iron, and arcane circuitry hammered directly into the fuller of the blade or the head of the hammer. In the hands of a non-psyker, the weapon functions as little more than a finely balanced piece of cold metal.
When gripped by a Grey Knight, however, the weapon links directly with the psi-matrix of his Aegis armour and acts as a lightning rod for his mental willpower. As the warrior strikes, he channels a surge of psychic energy down his arm and into the psi-conduits of the weapon. The blade erupts in a roaring corona of blue-white psychic fire and a conventional molecular disruption field simultaneously, allowing the physical edge to shear through Terminator plate or daemon-forged brass while the psychic discharge floods directly into the victim's nervous system and soul—snuffing out a mortal's brain in an instant or unmaking a Daemon's corporeal form from within.
Because the power of a Nemesis Force Weapon scales directly with the psychic strength and discipline of its wielder—or the combined mental chorus of an entire Grey Knights squad—a Strike Squad channelling their Hammerhand or Banishment rites in unison can fell a Bloodthirster or Great Unclean One many times their size.
Patterns, variants & doctrine
During the early millennia of the Chapter's history, the Nemesis Force Halberd was considered the quintessential Grey Knights weapon, pairing a long two-handed shaft with a heavy axe-blade and spear-tip. Today, the armoury of Titan encompasses five primary patterns of Nemesis Force Weapon, each suited to a different combat temperament. The Nemesis Force Sword offers a balanced marriage of parrying defence and psychic lethality. The Nemesis Force Halberd uses its two-handed leverage to strike with devastating force before an enemy can close. Paired Nemesis Falchions—twin single-handed short-swords—trade reach for a whirlwind of lightning-fast psychic slashes.
For the heaviest foes, Grey Knights Paladins and Terminators wield the Nemesis Daemon Hammer, combining the concussive capacitor discharge of a Thunder Hammer with a psi-matrix core. The Nemesis Warding Stave, topped with a sacred reliquary skull, projects a protective psychic barrier that can turn aside the blow of a Daemon Prince's axe in close combat. Finally, the towering Nemesis Dreadknight exo-suit mounts colossal vehicle-scaled equivalents: the Nemesis Greatsword and the Nemesis Doomfist.
Notable patterns & relic examples
- Nemesis Force Halberd & Force Sword: The signature silvered psi-blades of Grey Knights Strike Squads, Interceptors and Purgation Squads.
- Nemesis Daemon Hammer & Malleus Argyrum: Psychically charged Thunder Hammers wielded by Paladins and Grand Master Aldrik Voldus to banish Greater Daemons.
- Paired Nemesis Falchions & Warding Staves: Specialized dual-blade and defensive-field variants forged in the vaults of Titan.
- Nemesis Greatsword & Doomfist: Towering, psi-amplified close-combat weapons wielded by the pilot of a Nemesis Dreadknight.
Wielded & Fielded By
Characters (11)
Kaldor Draigo · Supreme Grand Master of the Grey Knights
Malcador the Sigillite · Regent of Terra, First Lord of the Council
Magnus the Red · Primarch of the Thousand Sons, the Crimson King
Mephiston · Chief Librarian of the Blood Angels, Lord of Death
Gregor Eisenhorn · Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos
Gideon Ravenor · Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos
Torquemada Coteaz · Inquisitor Lord of the Ordo Malleus
Ahzek Ahriman · Exiled Sorcerer of the Thousand Sons
Fabius Bile · Primogenitor, Clone Lord
Kairos Fateweaver · Oracle of Tzeentch
Tzeentch · Chaos God of Change, Sorcery and Ambition; the Changer of the Ways
