We stood there as the dream died

[MindOfMetal]

We donned the black as a sign of commitment to His great work. With it, we showed all that we had set ourselves aside from all chances of glory. There was honour in that.

Until the Crimson King showed the full extent of his ignorance.

We stood by while our brothers fought to protect His great work, steadfast in our duty and our commitment. We wept tears of rage at the loses. For years we waited to be called to act in its defence, but never were. We stood there as the dream died.

We were there when the Wolves of the Sixth sanctioned the sons of the Crimson giant. We showed them the true extant of our fury, our anger, our shame.

Could we have done more?

Want to use the summer holidays (joys of being a teacher) as a way of getting motivated to try and complete my Custodes army.

Enter the 'Wardens of the Vaults of Rython'

By the way, potential spoilers ahead (Master of Mankind).

Hidden Content

Doesn't seem to be a huge amount written about them. The one member written about didn't seem to have any records of him before the burning of Prospero. The fluff mentions the vaults of Rython being 'a particularly sequestered and forbidden sub-division of the deep levels of the Imperial Palace. That kinda makes me think they are something to do with the Emperor's work on the webway-his most secret project and something hidden deep down in the palace.Tried to do a little research on the word Rython and it came up with the Greek Rhyton, or ancient Greek word ῥυτόν (rhy̆tón or rhŭtón. It roughly talks about a drinking vessel/pourer. A link like this makes me think of a webway portal, especially when the Rhyton is used in ceremonies-with the establishment of the human branch of the Webway being the Emperors crowning achievement. Part of me thinks the Warders are meant to be linked to the portal entrance, but Warders also refers to guards in a prison. The webway project was so secretive that the Emperor could have set some of his Custodes to watch over those involved, to act as jailers for the technicians and the Mechanicum linked to the project. In my head that adds an extra layer to the Emperors plans that he didn't even completely trust those involved in his most secret project. The second part of the fluff about the warders mentions about how desperate things were for them to be involved. In Master of Mankind the custodes are referred to as 'the Ten Thousand'. This is pretty implicit about the number of them. Before Magnus broke through and damaged the Webway project wards there was a Custodes and Sisters of Silence presence in order to protect the Unifiers (the mechanicum involved). Then there was the incident with Magnus and daemons and stuff started attacking the Imperial presence inside the Webway and more custodes had to be drafted in-eventually whittling down the Ten Thousand to under a Thousand. This is were the Warders would come in with the whole Burning of Prospero. If they were so strapped for numbers they would have to draw them from where they could. If Prospero took place after the events of Master of Mankind then their role as watchmen over the project would have ended, thusly freeing them up for more active roles outside of the Palace. Just a few thoughts abouts them, a bit scattered and random I know.

Edited July 21, 2017 by MindOfMetal

[Dantay VI]

Looks amazing and I like the little story you wrote (vignette?).

 

Only thing to say is that the Wolves were the sixth legion, not the seventh (Imperial Fists were seventh legion)

[MindOfMetal]

Looks amazing and I like the little story you wrote (vignette?).

 

Only thing to say is that the Wolves were the sixth legion, not the seventh (Imperial Fists were seventh legion)

 

Thanks, can't believe I mixed the legion numbers up (always seems to be the Wolves and Fists I mix numbers up for).

 

 

[MindOfMetal]

Belatucadros of Albyon, Yang Jian of Ursh, Kalki of the Yndonesic Bloc

Aka 3 Hetaeron guard with paragon blades and praesidium shields.

[MindOfMetal]

Segomo of Albyon and Kovas of the Caucasus Wastes.

[MindOfMetal]

WiP of the dreadnoughts Thanatos and Hypnos as well as Prefect Ishtar-Deela Nakh

[Reyner]

I really like the black colour scheme you are using here :) what power fists are you using for the shield guys? 

[Charlo]

Very very nice...!

 

I need to give my custodes names too now...

 

Good idea with the GK swords for paragon blades, they look normal sized on the Custodes :P

[MindOfMetal]

@Reyner. Cheers, its probably the most effort I've put into the basic colour for a model in a while. Didn't like the idea of painting full gold custodes so when I saw the Warders they definitely became my favourite scheme for them. The power fists are from the tartaros terminator box, just with the shoulder shaved down in order to fit the shoulder pads on.

 

@Charlo. Thank you. I thought giving them names would fit in with them all being characters and there not being a lot of them. Gets a little awkward when you start trying to theme the names. Going from what I have read on Custodes, they seem to be named after historical deities or rulers from the region they were born in-hence the mixed Terran regions for each one. 

 

[MindOfMetal]

Potential spoilers for Master of Mankind and Inferno ahead.

 

The fluff mentions the vaults of Rython being 'a particularly sequestered and forbidden sub-division of the deep levels of the Imperial Palace. That makes me think they are something to do with the Emperor's work on the webway-his most secret project and something hidden deep down in the palace.

 

Why do the Warders wear Black? It’s not really mentioned and so far I have not seen any other theories apart from my own.  Most Custodians changed their armour to black after the Emperor was permanently enthroned. This almost seems at this point as an act of shame, a failure in their duty. But what about before this? The custodes tradition of inscribing names into their armour seems to me to have a possible link to why the Warders wore black. The Warders would have spent their time protecting the Webway project, therefore earning themselves no chance of extending their names through their deeds. Maybe knowing this the Emperor had them wear Black instead, in order to set them apart from the other Custodes. While the Warders could gain no honour names, everyone of importance would immediately be able to recognise their purpose.  They would be honoured simply because of their service.

 

Tried to do a little research on the word Rython and it came up with the Greek Rhyton, or ancient Greek word ῥυτόν (rhy̆tón or rhŭtón. It roughly talks about a drinking vessel/pourer. A link like this makes me think of a webway portal, especially when the Rhyton is used in ceremonies-with the establishment of the human branch of the Webway being the Emperors crowning achievement. Part of me thinks the Warders are meant to be linked to the portal entrance, but Warders also refers to guards in a prison. The webway project was so secretive that the Emperor could have set some of his Custodes to watch over those involved, to act as jailers for the technicians and the Mechanicum linked to the project. In my head that adds an extra layer to the Emperors plans that he didn't even completely trust those involved in his most secret project.

 

The second part of the fluff about the warders mentions about how desperate things were for them to be involved. In Master of Mankind the custodes are referred to as 'the Ten Thousand'. This is pretty implicit about the number of them. Before Magnus broke through and damaged the Webway project wards there was a Custodes and Sisters of Silence presence in order to protect the Unifiers (the mechanicum involved). Then there was the incident with Magnus and daemons and stuff started attacking the Imperial presence inside the Webway and more custodes had to be drafted in-eventually whittling down the Ten Thousand to under a Thousand.

This is where the Warders would come in with the whole Burning of Prospero. If they were so strapped for numbers they would have to draw them from where they could. If Prospero took place after the events of Master of Mankind then their role as watchmen over the project would have ended, thusly freeing them up for more active roles outside of the Palace. Inferno also states that 982 Custodes took part in the Burning of Prospero. If that’s the case, then it would have represented nearly (if not entirely) all of the remaining Custodes.

 

[Dantay VI]

As far as I was aware the custodes only changed the horse hair plumes and cloaks etc to black from red to represent the permanent enthronement.

 

The armour itself never changed colour. Unless new fluff has changed this or I mis-read the old fluff

[MindOfMetal]

@Wolf_Priest_Dantay. It might have been me mis-reading it, can't remember where I read about the colour change. Even if it wasn't the whole armour, it is still the importance of the colour black as a mark of shame/failure.

 

[Dosjetka]

I love the look of these Custodes! Would you mind sharing how you painted them (no need for a full tutorial)?

[outlanders_luke]

Fantastic work, makes me wish i started painting mine black now 

[MindOfMetal]

I love the look of these Custodes! Would you mind sharing how you painted them (no need for a full tutorial)?

 

Thanks for the comment.

The black armour started off with a really light, haphazard drybrush of leadbelcher. You don't want to make the armour metallic, just enough colour on it to make it less flat. Then 2 coats of nuln oil over everything before detailing.

The gold was a thinnish base of retributor armour then layered with liberator gold (I tend to use a really small drybrush for this). 

Once all the other details are done, everything is washed with aggrax earthshade and maybe a little nuln oil to dull the gold down a bit.