Shadowkeepers

Beneath the Imperial Palace, far below the gilded halls where the Ten Thousand keep their eternal watch, lie the Dark Cells, a labyrinth of oubliettes and warded vaults in which the Imperium has sealed away that which it dares neither loose nor destroy. Daemons bound in unbreakable chains, forbidden archeotech, captive horrors and secrets that could unmake worlds all languish in that lightless dominion, and it is the Shadowkeepers who stand as their gaolers.

This is a duty unlike any other borne by the Custodes. The Shadowkeepers do not merely guard against intrusion; they guard against escape, and their vigil is turned inward upon the very things they hold. To walk the Dark Cells is to move among nightmares that whisper and rage against their bonds, and only the unbending will of a Custodian can endure such proximity to horror without faltering. In keeping with their sombre charge, the Shadowkeepers forsake the blazing gold of their brothers for armour of funereal black, chased with gold, a shade fitting for those who dwell in shadow.

Their writ does not end at the threshold of the vaults. Should one of the entities or artefacts under their keeping ever break free and manifest somewhere in the Imperium, the Shadowkeepers are dispatched to reclaim it, hunting the escaped horror across the stars with implacable patience. They are equally adept at capturing the dangerous and the forbidden wherever it is found, for who better to imprison a nightmare than those who have spent their long lives as its keepers?