Weapons27

The Adrastus bolt caliver is the Allarus Custodian's ranged arm — a heavy bolt weapon with an adrathic core that tears at armour past what its bolts alone would manage. It lays down disciplined Rapid Fire as the Terminator-grade demigod advances, softening a target before the Castellan axe arrives to end it. Built for a fighter that deep-strikes into the enemy's weak flank, it opens the fight at range and hands the killing to the blade.

The adrathic devastator is a Custodian sidearm that fires a lance of disintegrating energy — Adrathic fire that unmakes armour rather than merely piercing it, so the target's plate offers no save at all. Short-ranged and precise, it is the demigod's answer to a heavily-armoured foe at close quarters, burning open a gap the blade then exploits. A Shield-Captain carries one alongside its axe; what the axe cannot yet reach, the devastator strips bare.

The arachnus blaze cannon is the Telemon's primary gun, a super-heavy energy weapon that scours the ground at range and leaves it burning with Blaze. It comes with the walker and is carried by nothing else — a war-engine's armament that unmakes cheap bodies by the score and threatens even the hardest target. The Telemon plants itself and lets the cannon do its work, the enemy melting away before it ever reaches the caestus.

The arachnus heavy blaze cannon is the grav-tank's main gun — a turret-scaled arachnus that fires a lance of contained golden fire hot enough to burn through tank armour and set what survives alight. Where a Telemon carries the infantry-grade weapon, the grav-chassis mounts the heavier pattern, throwing a Strength 9 beam at long range with an armour-shredding edge and the lingering Blaze that follows a hit. It is a chassis-fitted arm, seated on the hull's forward hardpoint and served by the crew, and it is the reason a Pallas or Coronus is fielded at all: one gun that answers anything the enemy can put on the table.

The Balistus grenade-launcher is a wrist-mounted throwing arm worn on a Custodian's vambrace, a compact launcher that lobs frag or krak charges over cover and out to the middle distance. It gives the spear-armed demigod the one thing the guardian spear cannot — an arcing, Blast-pattern answer to a target dug in or clustered behind a wall — and its Versatile-ammo feed lets the bearer choose fragmentation against soft ranks or a shaped charge against armour as the moment demands. It is a rarer pattern, seen on the Legio's Dreadnought and Terminator wargear far more often than in a line Custodian's hand, and a warrior who carries one has kitbashed it onto his armour for the reach it lends.

The boltgun is the Prosecutor's ranged workhorse — a reliable mass-reactive weapon that lays down steady Rapid Fire as the null-maiden holds the line. It is no demigod's arm and makes no claim to be, but in the hands of a Sister of Silence advancing behind her null-field it does honest work, answering the massed cheap bodies a Custodes gang is forever outnumbered by while the Silence smothers the witch she walks toward.

The bolt pistol is a close-range sidearm, a mass-reactive round fired one-handed as a fighter closes to the blade. The Custodian Warden and the Knight-Centura carry one for the approach — a shot to open the exchange before the spear or the greatblade does the rest. Common across the Imperium and dependable in any hand, it asks nothing of its bearer and rarely fails them.

The Castellan axe is the Shield-Captain's two-handed power axe, a firearm built into its head so that it answers at range before ever it falls. In melee it is a Power weapon that strikes with crushing force and rends the heaviest armour — a single Unwieldy swing enough to fell a Brute. It is slow to bring around, and a fighter that commits to it commits fully, but little on the battlefield survives being reached by one. The mark, and the reach, of a commander of the Ten Thousand.

The Castellan relic-axe is a Castellan axe of the earliest making, carried in the Captain-General tradition and earned across a campaign, never simply bought. It strikes as its kin do but with a relic's edge — a Master-crafted head that lets the wielder re-roll a stroke gone astray, so the blow lands where the will directs it. In the hands of the hardest fighter a gang can field, it is a weapon that settles duels the moment it is drawn. Ten thousand years of war have not dulled it.

The executioner greatblade is the null-maiden's two-handed sword, forged for one purpose: to behead witches. A heavy Power blade that demands both hands, it strikes with weight enough to cleave armour, and against a Psyker it bites deeper still, each Wound dealt at greater cost to the caster. The Vigilator and the Knight-Centura carry it into the heart of an enemy's warp-craft — the Silence strangles the witch's power, and the greatblade takes its head.

The flamer is the Witchseeker's purging weapon — a gout of promethium sprayed across a Template of ground, setting the enemy alight with Blaze that burns long after the flame has passed. It needs no aim and answers the massed cheap bodies a Custodes gang is always outnumbered by, sweeping a firing line clear in a single pull. The null-field walks with the fire; the psyker chokes on its strangled power while the flame comes for its shield.

The frag grenade is a common fragmentation charge, a Blast of shrapnel flung into a clustered enemy that scatters and staggers as much as it wounds, its Knockback throwing back the foe that presses too close. A Custodian or a Sister carries a handful to break up a mass of cheap bodies before the blade work begins — a plain tool, but a useful one for a gang that is forever outnumbered.

The Galatus warblade is the Contemptor-Galatus's great Power blade, a Dreadnought's weapon that carves through fighters and fortifications alike. It comes with the walker and is wielded by nothing smaller — an Unwieldy sweep of relic steel that few things on the field survive being reached by. Paired with the walker's integral shield, it makes the Galatus a fighting engine that holds ground and kills whatever comes to take it.

The guardian spear is the iconic arm of the Custodian, a storm-bolter mounted along the haft of a master-crafted power blade so that one warrior opens the range with disciplined bolt fire and then carves through plate as it closes. Its shooting keeps the enemy honest at distance; its Power blade finishes the work in melee, striking harder and cutting deeper than any ordinary spear. It is the default demigod's weapon, balanced for a fighter meant to win the whole fight alone — from the first shot to the last stroke.

The Iliastus accelerator culverin is the Ares Gunship's signature main gun — a high-rate accelerator cannon that magnetically hurls a torrent of dense golden slugs faster than the eye can follow. Where a heavier gun trades rate for stopping power, the culverin does the opposite: it throws a punishing volume of fire down the nose arc, saturating a fast mover with more hits than it can survive before it can twist away. It is a chassis-fitted arm, seated on the gunship's forward hardpoint and served by the crew, and its cyclic storm is what lets the Ares hunt the airspace clean — a wall of shot no light flyer or skimmer crosses unscathed.

The interceptor lance is the Vertus Praetor's charging weapon, a long Power blade built for a rider striking from the Dawneagle jetbike at speed. Its Reach lets the rider engage before the enemy can answer, and on the charge it bites hardest of all — the Lance driving home with the full weight of the ride behind it. A lone-operative's weapon, it is deadliest in the first pass, when the jetbike screams in and the lance finds its mark before the fight has truly begun.

The krak grenade is a shaped anti-armour charge, a single focused blast meant to crack open what fragmentation cannot — a walker's hull, a heavily-armoured fighter, a barricade in the way. A Custodian carries a few for the moment a target's plate turns aside everything else, driving the charge home where its weight tells. One well-placed krak does what a dozen bolt rounds will not.

The lastrum bolt cannon is the Talons grav-tank's twin bolt-cannon — a paired, high-cycle mount that rakes a long stream of heavy bolts across the advance, cutting down massed infantry the arachnus is wasted on. It is the grav-chassis's secondary arm, seated on the flanking hardpoints and worked by the crew, sweeping the ground ahead of the golden war-engine so the enemy line is thinned before the demigods reach it. Where the arachnus answers armour, the lastrum answers numbers, and a hull carrying both leaves little on the field to trouble it.

The misericordia is the Throne's dagger, the executioner's mercy every Custodian carries at the belt. A short Parry blade, it turns an enemy's stroke aside in close combat, but its purpose is the killing stroke — against a fighter already Seriously Injured it bites deepest, finishing what the spear or axe began. It is the quiet end a demigod gives a foe that will not fall to the first blow, the last mercy of the Ten Thousand.

The Praesidium of the Tenth is a relic shield of the earliest guard, earned across a campaign and never bought. It throws up a stronger ward than any common Praesidium — a field that turns a blow aside on a 3 or higher, laid over the demigod's Auramite — and Bashes back the foe that dares press its bearer. A Custodian carrying it is very nearly immovable, an anchor the whole line forms around, holding an objective against everything the enemy can bring against it.

The Praesidium shield is the storm-shield of the Ten Thousand, a slab of master-worked plate that throws up a field ward around its bearer atop the Auramite already worn. It is the anchor of the sword-and-shield build — a demigod that plants itself on an objective and cannot be shifted, Bashing aside any foe that presses too close. Where the Guard advance, the shield-bearer holds; nothing short of overwhelming numbers moves it from the ground it has chosen.

The psyk-out grenade is the Sisters' anti-witch ordnance — a null-charge hurled into an enemy caster's midst. Its Blast is slight, but the wound is not the point: a Psyker caught in it suffers Perils on any double and cannot call on its Wyrd Powers the following round, its craft snuffed out at the moment it needs it most. Thrown ahead of the null-maidens' advance, it silences the witch even before the Silence draws near.

The salvo launcher is the Vertus Praetor's bike-mounted missile array, a heavy weapon that throws Blast fire across the field before the rider commits to the charge. Its Rapid Fire pattern scatters a mass of cheap bodies or softens a hard target, clearing the way the interceptor lance will follow. It is the Vertus's answer to being one rider against many — reach out, break the enemy's formation, then ride in and finish what the missiles started.

The sentinel blade pairs a compact bolt-caster with a master-crafted short sword — the arm of the sword-and-shield Custodian who fights behind a Praesidium field. It fires at close range and then defends as much as it strikes, a Power blade with the balance to Parry, turning an enemy's stroke aside as readily as it lands its own. It is the weapon of the bulwark build, chosen by a demigod meant to hold ground rather than chase it, immovable behind blade and shield.

The spiculus heavy bolt launcher is the golden host's landing-zone clearer — a multi-shot launcher that lobs a stream of bursting heavy bolts into a target, each round detonating across a wide radius to scour massed infantry from open ground. Where the arachnus answers armour, the spiculus answers numbers, saturating the ground beneath a flyer's approach so the enemy line is broken before the demigods disembark into it. Mounted in pairs on the flanks of the Orion and the Ares, it is a chassis-fitted arm seated on the hull's hardpoints and worked by the crew, and its bursting fire is the reason a golden ship can settle into a contested zone and disgorge its handful into a cleared field rather than a waiting gun-line.

The Telemon caestus is the super-Dreadnought's crushing fist, a spitfire built into its knuckles for the close fight. In melee it strikes at twice the walker's already-monstrous Strength, tearing through armour and body with each blow, while the integral gun answers anything that closes. It comes with the Telemon and no other — the weapon of a war-engine that ends a fight by simply reaching the enemy, and almost nothing survives being reached.

The Umbra-ferrox pattern bolter is the heavier boltgun the Silent Sisterhood carries alongside the Talons of the Emperor — a thicker receiver and a faster action grafted onto the standard frame, throwing a denser hail of bolts than a Prosecutor's issue weapon. In a null-maiden's hands it lays down a Rapid Fire storm that walks the advance forward, the Sisters closing the range on a psyker while the Silence smothers its craft. It is a mark seldom drawn from the common armoury; a Sister who fields one has rebuilt her boltgun around the heavier pattern for the weight of fire it brings to the null-advance.