Warhammer 40,000: What Is The Deathwatch? (2024)

Table of Contents

Quick Links What Is The Deathwatch? What Do They Do? How Did The Deathwatch Form? Who Joins The Deathwatch? What Are Black Shields? Your Rating

Quick Links

What Is The Deathwatch?

What Do They Do?

How Did The Deathwatch Form?

Who Joins The Deathwatch?

What Are Black Shields?

Throughout the varied, decades-long lore of Warhammer 40,000, there are plenty of factions that stick to the shadows. These obscure groups, no matter what side they are on, practice their skills unknown to most of the universe around them.

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For the Imperium, there are few organizations as obscure and deadly as the Deathwatch. While some Warhammer 40k media goes over their exploits, it can be confusing to figure out just what exactly the Deathwatch is.

What Is The Deathwatch?

The Deathwatch is a highly selective group of space marines that the Imperium of Mankind's Inquisition uses as their military might. They are used by the Ordo Xenos, one of the three arms of the Inquisition, mostly.

They are in many ways the Ordo Xenos' equivalent of the Ordo Hereticus' Grey Knights.

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Where most inquisitors have a warband or similar retinue of highly-trained combatants, the Deathwatch is unique for being solely made up of the most deadly of the loyalist space marine forces. These small squads of space marines are called Deathwatch kill-teams.

What Do They Do?

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The sole goal of the Deathwatch is to combat the xenos (alien) forces throughout the galaxy. During an Ordo Xenos inquisitor's investigations, should they need a swift and deadly force to deal with a xenos threat, the Deathwatch is used.

Some inquisitors travel with one or more Deathwatch members, while others choose to only summon them when their skills are needed. They are skilled in many ways of combat thanks to the Deathwatch squads usually being made up of xenos-fighing veterans of hundreds of years.

It isn't unheard of for a Deathwatch kill-team to encounter heretical forces. It isn't their favored enemy, but it is one they fight just as well.

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They have been known to go on missions like assassinations, retrieval of important materials, bodyguards in moments of extreme danger, and even raids on xenos worlds. How long each space marine is in the Deathwatch varies, mostly on their survival.

How Did The Deathwatch Form?

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The Deathwatch were formed during the 32nd millennium, a thousand years after the Imperium was split by the Horus Heresy. It was during this time that an incredibly large force of Orks began its assault on Terra (Earth).

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It was during this tense time that Chapter Master Koorland of the Imperial Fists chapter of space marines saw how well a small kill-team of specialists could be. Thus, he formed the first Deathwatch kill-teams out of the surviving veterans of the campaign from that point.

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From there, the Inquisition took over the use of Deathwatch teams to further spearhead their war against anything alien.

Who Joins The Deathwatch?

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Any space marine of the loyalist chapters can join the Deathwatch, should they be chosen. They first must prove themselves in their capacity for fighting of xenos, usually of more than one type since most of them are veterans of many wars.

Some chapters pick from their very best to be sent off for stints in the Deathwatch squads, while others are hand-picked by inquisitors. Regardless, it is a great honor to be a part of a Deathwatch squad.

They hold various fortresses across the galaxy in which they monitor and train for the inevitable battles they will all join.

Usually, it is only one or two squads of Deathwatch sent out for any specific mission, such is the scope and severity of their skills.

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What Are Black Shields?

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The Black Shields are space marines that join the Deathwatch, but don't reveal what chapter they are from originally. This can be for a handful of reasons, but it usually comes as a form of shame or penitence for the marine in question.

They are often pariahs in their own squads, as many take issue with a marine not wanting his lineage to be known, or they worry about whatever the marine may have done to warrant such shame.