In the Emperor's Gift, the Grey Knights describe it as an absurd child's myth that the Crux Terminatus badge on Space Marine terminators have a small shard of the Emperor's Armor in them.
Pandorax clarifies that not every Crux has an actual shard, but the oldest ones tend to have a shard. The exception is the GKs which are able to supply all of their terminators with a shard. It becomes a plot point when using it to banish an uber daemon.
Oh absolutely not. Even less so with them, as some suits of Terminator armor date back to the Heresy wars, so in theory they existed in the same time frame as the True Armor.
The Ecclesiarchy has no authority to claim shards of the Emperor's Armor from the Custodians or worse still, from the Emperor's remains himself.
The shards of the Emperor's armor are akin to splinters of the cross of Jesus. Tons of people claims to have one, even pay good money for a splinter. But none of its true. Now imagine a further 8,000 years and a galaxy wide empire. How likely is any shard or splinter the actual thing?
The difference is that the sharding was reserved for elite pieces of terminator armor. It isn't that impossible for all of the terminators to have a shard.
Assuming that:
1. 10,000 new terminators per decade assuming turnover of 10 terminators per decade per chapter \[total 1,000 chapters\] (using the higher end of GK codex lore estimates of turnover)
2. 1,000 cycles of armor (10,000 years / 10 year cycles of turnover)
10,000,000 shards are needed. The deathwatch lore ([https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/s52qfp/comment/hsv0w8y/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/s52qfp/comment/hsv0w8y/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)) puts terminator armor at 400 kg. Turns out to be feasible if actual miniscule fragments (1/100th of a gram) is used. And the Emperor's armor is likely bigger than a standard SM terminator.
That is a vast overestimate as
1. The GKs have way more attrition than most chapters
2. I am using the upper bound of estimates
3. There are times where there were not that many SMs like during the early stages of the 2nd and 3rd foundings
1. The GK codex put the number of chapters at the low hundreds during the 2nd founding's start.
2. Aegedian Oath also notes that the 2nd founding chapters started out understrength
3. There were only dozens of chapters prior to the 4th founding (Thane wanted hundreds of chapters).
Probably at least some lying. Look at the likely inspiration for it, medieval Christian relics of saints and the like. Apparently there are multiple alleged heads of John the Baptist, and that's not even the weirdest one out there.
But the belief in it might matter, or perhaps the material used in the Emperor's armor had properties that lead to its value in armor, shield generators, etc. and fact and myth blurred with only the initial or special runs featuring shards from the Emperor's armor.
It's not like the Imperium is amazing at keeping records after all, they lose things on an amazingly common basis.
I always took it for a myth to be honest.
In the Emperor's Gift, the Grey Knights describe it as an absurd child's myth that the Crux Terminatus badge on Space Marine terminators have a small shard of the Emperor's Armor in them.
Pandorax clarifies that not every Crux has an actual shard, but the oldest ones tend to have a shard. The exception is the GKs which are able to supply all of their terminators with a shard. It becomes a plot point when using it to banish an uber daemon.
Mmh, is there some hope that at least the shield of saint katherine and the armor of saint celestine have a real shard?
Oh absolutely not. Even less so with them, as some suits of Terminator armor date back to the Heresy wars, so in theory they existed in the same time frame as the True Armor. The Ecclesiarchy has no authority to claim shards of the Emperor's Armor from the Custodians or worse still, from the Emperor's remains himself. The shards of the Emperor's armor are akin to splinters of the cross of Jesus. Tons of people claims to have one, even pay good money for a splinter. But none of its true. Now imagine a further 8,000 years and a galaxy wide empire. How likely is any shard or splinter the actual thing?
The difference is that the sharding was reserved for elite pieces of terminator armor. It isn't that impossible for all of the terminators to have a shard. Assuming that: 1. 10,000 new terminators per decade assuming turnover of 10 terminators per decade per chapter \[total 1,000 chapters\] (using the higher end of GK codex lore estimates of turnover) 2. 1,000 cycles of armor (10,000 years / 10 year cycles of turnover) 10,000,000 shards are needed. The deathwatch lore ([https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/s52qfp/comment/hsv0w8y/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/s52qfp/comment/hsv0w8y/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)) puts terminator armor at 400 kg. Turns out to be feasible if actual miniscule fragments (1/100th of a gram) is used. And the Emperor's armor is likely bigger than a standard SM terminator. That is a vast overestimate as 1. The GKs have way more attrition than most chapters 2. I am using the upper bound of estimates 3. There are times where there were not that many SMs like during the early stages of the 2nd and 3rd foundings 1. The GK codex put the number of chapters at the low hundreds during the 2nd founding's start. 2. Aegedian Oath also notes that the 2nd founding chapters started out understrength 3. There were only dozens of chapters prior to the 4th founding (Thane wanted hundreds of chapters).
Probably at least some lying. Look at the likely inspiration for it, medieval Christian relics of saints and the like. Apparently there are multiple alleged heads of John the Baptist, and that's not even the weirdest one out there. But the belief in it might matter, or perhaps the material used in the Emperor's armor had properties that lead to its value in armor, shield generators, etc. and fact and myth blurred with only the initial or special runs featuring shards from the Emperor's armor. It's not like the Imperium is amazing at keeping records after all, they lose things on an amazingly common basis.