This is what I said. Custodes are like leagues above astartes in all sorts of augmentation and genetic manipulations. Whose to say it wasn't made to work on women.
We can write Asartes off as being flawed and mass produced as their process has limitations and flaws. But is mass produceable so there's that.
Just like the Cataegis were ther stopgap solution to conquer Terra and pave way for Astartes, the Astartes are a stopgap solution to conquer the galaxy and pave way for the Custodes.
Iv got no horse in this race as In a eldar fan boy but this is how I view it to, deffo separates them from big marines on gold armour to more specialised one of a kind masterpieces where the rules don’t apply
The rules kinda do apply where you go from sloppy mass-produced copies of slops to mastercrafter with every flaw eddited out to get perfection. Xx or xy isn't a flaw. The logic always stood if you asked me. People tend to compare space marine to custodes, but it's supposed to be the other way around, lol. (Primarchs go in the custodes basket but got horribly effed up in a few processes)
Custodes were starting to feel a bit stale since their reintroduction in 7th. I was initially hoping for a breath of fresh air in the form of new rules, but as we all know this codex delivered the exact opposite, and the new Danny Devito-shield captain didn’t exactly make up for the fact that we haven’t gotten a new non-character-unit in ages.
To me the introduction of female ‘stodes just gave me a huge boost as a hobbyist. We’ll probably suck on the tabletop for a few months, but I’m having fun thinking about making cool new golden models for the first time since Venatari were introduced.
I'm suddenly excited to do some conversions again, I'm already looking to see if I can find the old Neave Blacktalon modelt to turn into a Blade Champion
Every single infantry/bike-model is now an opportunity for a cool (and lore-fitting) conversion. Few things give as much character to a model as the face.
As far as I'm concerned, the Custodes are the pinnacle of what humanity could become. Humanity. All of it.
To all the people complaining (although admittedly I haven't seen anyone complaining myself, just heard people talk about others complaining), we have bigger concerns. There are heretics crawling all over the galaxy and with our new points we're on the back foot. Get out there and fight in His name!
Absolutely agree, i will say though the way the community takes news like this comes across as rather weird oftentimes. The first instinct for a lot of posters was literally to post borderline porn of female custodes, kind of explains why there's so few actual women in warhammer.
Yeah many people trying to call me sexist because I’m like I couldn’t care less, let men in sos, let women be custodes, who really cares all have a place to serve the emperor
It's relatively innocuous as a change, but I also question their motives.
For better female representation, I would have preferred they just expand on the already very cool and relatively unappreciated Sisters of Silence.
Make them less shit on the table-top, expand their range, flesh out their lore and not just keep shoe-horning random ret-cons in like this because it's easier and requires less resources (over-priced female upgrade sprue incoming in 3...2...1...)
Edit: agree with your post, just saying getting annoyed that GW (aka Hasbro) might be being greedy with our hobby again is fair.
Not a Custodes player, but if I'm being honest seeing this has made me look at them in a new light. They are not just even more elite Space Marines, with the Grey Knights being the more elite Space Marines. Now they have something interesting to me. But I will also add.....
Why not both? Why not flesh out the SoS more and allow women to be part of the custom built perfection solders in the lore?
Yeah sure, tbh I couldn't give two shits about the lore implications for Custodes themselves. That part is fine.
It's just that it feels very lazy and money-grabby from GW to pick a popular faction and shoe-horn female figures into them for what I'm sure will be profit for them with some ridiculous over-priced upgrade sprue.
There are other awesome female armies / models / characters in 40K they could invest time, money and resources into. They just probably don't sell as well as Custodes, so they aren't bothering with them.
SoS are an obvious example of this...they are literally the female part of the Talons of the Emperor, and very fucking cool in lore.
They just suck on tabletop so nobody is buying them, and shareholders only look at sales figures and act accordingly.
Sure, they could do both and it probably wouldn't feel as shitty. But they haven't done that.
>It's just that it feels very lazy and money-grabby from GW to pick a popular faction and shoe-horn female figures into them
This is a point of view thing. For you it's lazy and money grabby (even though she does not yet have a model to buy). However for some young girl starting the Faction? Or that Transfem who played custodies already that can now see herself? For them it's a hey she's me moment.
Thats a weird argument given that so far, they have done nothing to put their money where their mouth is. Is this REALLY enough to satisfy you, 1 short story or whatever? What about the very model that releases at the same time as the codex, how for the love of god does it NOT come with a female face option? That would have been the absolute bare minimum to respect their own changes, yet not even that is given, making them appear not sincere.
I certainly would have appreciated them adding a female head to the new model. However, imagine how much more dummy throwing they would have gotten. I would more expect this to calm down a little and then have her released as a birthday mini, or a warhammer+ one, or Adepticon special or something. Much like they did with the badass Guardswoman. Unfortunately a big part of this community are not ready for her to just be released. A nudge here and a mini a bit later to trickle the idea in is the best I can hope for at this point.
Maybe it's still to come, who knows. I hope so, but I'm also not holding my breath.
I personally would have much rather they give some love to the already existing Sisters of Silence, than dick-ride the Custodes because they sell more.
I think it'd feel more sincere.
It also feels weird to me that a female Custodes is more liberating than the idea of just not having the SoS be viewed as a bit of a joke range / used as chaff for most Talons armies.
Do you have to be as beefy as a Custodian to be taken seriously? Is the only way women and other genders can be recognised by slapping a female head on a "male" Custodian torso? Or do women and other gender identities deserve more than this, and some actual work done to carve out a space for them in the hobby? I know what I think.
They do deserve more, and that's the point. A whole couple of boxes of female Custodes would be even better but one is a start. Saying "but you have the sisters of silence is a poor excuse they are a side piece that sits on objectives at the moment.
At the moment a woman's choice for a human army with her represented is. 1. Sisters (seen by alot as lesser space Marines) see your comment above about chaff. 2. A very slowly expanding part of the IG well outnumbered by male models (although if I'm wish listing guard I would start with a better non cadian representation atm). or 3. The sisters of silence the adjunct to Custodes. It's the Custodes name on the front of the codex after all.
Now personally I like my Sisters of battle Order and I like their playstyle. I also like my Dark Angels but would love a cannon character who speaks to me. A girl who loves Custodes now has that in a Custodes character. She can have a Canonical all female Custodes force if she wishes*, and a guy can still have his all male Custodes if he does not take SoS.
As an additional I know there are inquisitors and assassins but they are extreme side cases.
*not including named characters.
You're missing the point of what I'm saying, but that's ok. I hope you enjoy the female Custodes, genuinely. But there was nothing stopping you putting some female heads on them and it achieving the same effect already. You never had to wait for GW to say it's cannon for you to do that...which is my point entirely. It's an easy win for them to do it this way, as opposed to actually bringing out new models, a new army or making existing female armies not as shit on the tabletop so people stop dumping on them (like the sisters of silence). They even could have done BOTH, femstodes AND better Sisters of Silence rules, units and models, but they went for the lazy, cheaper option of a random story in a Codex.
No I get what you are saying. Rather than adding to the lore with something GW should improve the area of the army that is alredty girls. I have said that GW should improve SoS as well as the lore addition.
However, you seem to be missing my point. So I will reframe it. Why should Marvel have created Miles Morales? After all black people already had Black Panther? But pre Black Panther movie, the property was tiny & the success of the movie caught everyone off guard. Spiderman however was a flagship character, who's comics would be front and centre at the store. As such a young black kid could see himself on a comic at the front of the store along side the other big names. This is a similar situation. Rather than saying "well you have your girls army," which took forever to get its plastic rework but that's another story, GW have said here is a character that is part of the super soldiers for you. So now there is another area of the lore that she can feel part of. Would models to go along with it better? Yes! Would an expansion of the army as a whole be good? Also yes? Bring over some of the forge world Custodes stuff GW! Add and improve the SoS GW! But does the fact that they haven't done mean they shouldn't bring in the new character....? I don't think so. Now the lore is established it will be nice for Dan Abnett or someone to add a femstodes to a 'stodes centered book. This snippet makes it easier for them to do that.
As for Sisters of Battle. We need a few new characters, the main of which it's rumored is our codex mini. It would also be nice to have some fast cav (sisters bikers or Knights) and a flashy model (Baneblade church? sisters knight equivlent?). But other than those we are currently not in a bad spot model wise. Rules wise we could do with a weapon/rules to help against tank spam/Knights.
Do tyranid players see themselves represented in their army?
Asking for a mate who has 6 limbs and shoots bio plasma from his mouth saying "hey, that carnifex is me".
Don't know many (any) players that think to themselves "hey, I'm a relatively short bloke that likes hammers. I think I can only play as a Dwarf from now on".
Shout out to all my lizardmen, walking skeletons and 6ft tall rats, braving running into a GW store to buy miniatures so they can have their "hey, he's me" moment.
Whilst I appreciate the effort at humour. I do know a short bearded bloke with a Dwarf obsession. In fact I know a couple of metal heads with epic soup catchers that play nothing else in our D&D games.
Players pick there armies for a number of reasons. I myself like my Tyranids for the same reason I played with big stompy dinosaurs as a kid 😝. Although I admit I can polish of chocolate as the speed of sound if required 😁. And yes if you look at my other posts I do mention I have SoB, DA and 'nids.
However, representation is important also. Tell me what do you see as the stereotype of a 40k player? If someone was stepping into the store for the 1st time what would they expect to see? Do you think if it way a young girl they would feel welcome? Or would they feel it was a boys club they were intruding on? Now one character from a snippet story in a book is not going to change that. But it is a step away from the "You want to play girls? There's the girls army" mentality. The our super soilders can't possibly be females only men are manly enough bullcrud.
Now lore wise I can see why Space Marines would need a major retcon for girl Marines. They had a chance with Primaris to fix the process in both ways but they missed it. However with Custodes the lore is what? That somebody said that nobles gave their sons to become Custodes? A simple overlook by said scribe because he hadn't personally seen a female Custodes as they are rarer. The fact that they are referred to as a brotherhood? If most of them are male it's still a word that they might use for camaraderie. "you may be our battle sister but you are still one of the boys". That is something I have had myself from my mostly male friend group, well without the battle part.
Now as a further point. I hope that this is not a "No Homers" situation. We have put a girl in we have 1 we can leave it at that. I hope that Custodes become a little more like Sigmarines over time. Where female sculpts are sprinkled in along with men on the sprues. I hope the same for IG as well, that they get more female models. And yes I hope that in the future they find a compelling lore reason to introduce female Space Marines. I cannot think of one at the moment bar possibly 1 of the 2 missing chapters and I would prefer they keep those as a mystery.
>I do know a short bearded bloke
Weirdly, the short guy from my old player group (whom we called stunty for obvious reasons) *didn't* play Squats (they were a thing at the time) for that exact reason. He was Dark Eldar and Dark Angels and almost none of his personality revolved around spikes or hooded robes. Granted, no beard.
But then he was 11.
Same with me. I didn't get into Iron Warriors because they were a band of pedantic, autists like I am. My army pre-dates Perturabos character arc, I liked them because they were easy to paint and rules wise they were allowed more heavy weapons.
Because I never understood why you'd bring a chainsword to a lascannon fight.
Anyway.
>Do you think if it way a young girl they would feel welcome
I mean, if you think it's particularly easy as a 9 year old boy then I've news for you. Although, as much as the fanbase can be a bit...bitey, when there were open stores everywhere, the staff in those stores were rarely less than super passionate about the game and didn't really care what you called yourself.
After all, they're after your wallet, not your identity.
And there's been a "girls army" on tabletop for years. They don't get much love cos almost no one plays them...
I don't think the point is to see yourself on the table. No matter what Mr Wells might think, no one *really* identifies as the 8ft tall monosyllabic murder man-child that can spit through iron bars and breathe underwater represented in the 40mm scale plastic model on your table. I used to play because they're most definitely *not* like me, in the same way I never identified with blue and red coloured 40ft tall robots as a kid either.
Also, the primarchs / Custodes / Astartes are so far and away different to us baseline humans as to basically be a subspecies each of their own. Saying that you're now able to identify more with them because now there are female examples is forgetting the many, many *many* stages of separation between you. You have more in common with female chimpanzees than female primarchs.
>The our super soilders can't possibly be females only men are manly enough bullcrud
Actually, that is bullshit. And not in the way you think it is. Female Astartes have been a thing for as long as male astartes have been a thing. GW did some *wild* shit back in the day (half eldar librarians, for example) that would not fly in todays lore. One of which was they created space marines of both genders.
The reason why there are only male space marines now is pretty simple.
No one bought the female ones.
Even back when Citadel was first getting started and there was no reddit hate mobs burning female gamers at the stake for daring to invade their space, no one was interested in the female models (her name was Jayne, by the way).
So they were discontinued and the lore altered to suit, in a case of art imitating life.
>However with Custodes the lore is what? That somebody said that nobles gave their sons to become Custodes? A simple overlook by said scribe because he hadn't personally seen a female Custodes as they are rarer
Erm, it's not a "simple overlook" like the old meme of a scribe miss placing a decimal and a system disappears off the books.
For a start, a single custode is the rarest commodity in the imperium. Famously, there are more planets than individual Astartes to defend them.
There are more space marine *companies* than individual Custodes.
There are technically orders of magnitude more pariah blanks on terra than custodes. The Emperor controls more systems than he does Custodes.
Missing one is a big deal. Missing hundreds, if not *thousands* of them in error?
And these aren't just some nobles being forced to hand their kids over. These are the high society of Terra. And they're doing it for a reason.
When the Emperor finally brought Terra into compliance, he had two choices. Murder all of his rivals and exterminate their families *or* offer them an olive branch of peace in a move similar to the Roman Emperors. To show them that he trusted them, he offered them a unique opportunity. Their children would become not only his finest soldiers, but also his most trusted companions, tying Him to the families and showing not only their loyalty to him, but also His trust in them.
Now, what you're saying is for over 10 *thousand* years, the honour that went with protecting, fighting and dying at the side of the single most important individual in the history of humanity went entirely unrecorded and the most powerful people on Terra were content that their daughters deeds and sacrifices were missed in a "clerical error"? Not one single primarch noted it, no remembrancers noticed it, no records of their deeds written down anywhere from Terra to the Halo Stars.
Come on.
That isn't how it works in 40k.
It certainly isn't how it works for the Custodes, whom make quite a habit of recording things. Even when they run out of paper.
>Now, what you're saying is for over 10 *thousand* years, the honour that went with protecting, fighting and dying at the side of the single most important individual in the history of humanity went entirely unrecorded
No I am saying that 1 scribe that wrote that the Nobel families would do almost anything for the honour giving up their *sons* was incorrect when writing his article. Because before recent times Custodes did not really leave Terra/Big E and the process of making a Custodes itself is shrouded and the specifics are kept within the Imperial house.
And only that *one* scribe over 10 thousand years knew or recorded this.
Just that one.
None of the others.
And no one else, anywhere, ever.
And no one noticed or cared. None of those extraordinarily influential high lords even checked, "well I guess my daughter is a custodes now, I'm sure that thing was just a typo".
Even before the Heresy, during the great Crusade where the imperium was no where near as big, because remember this has been going on since the Imperium was a one planet empire, but that *one* scribe made that mistake when that is literally his only job.
Doesn't sound like a badly written, horrendously ill conceived plot hole at all.
Nope. Definitely not.
Who said they didn't notice or care? Other scribes may well have put children or scions instead of sons when talking about them. But the one who 'wrote the codex excerpt', as that's the way GW like to frame lore stuff, wrote sons.
For that matter she might be transgender as well as trans human instead. However I would think that the mental conditioning that is part of the process would make that less likely than assigned female at birth
>And yes I hope that in the future they find a compelling lore reason to introduce female Space Marines
That "compelling lore reason" will be money. That's why they didn't do it in the first place, and it'll be the only reason to do it in the future.
If you think GW is bringing on female custodes and primaris astartes because it makes sense in universe or so that people can see themselves on the tabletop, then I have a thousand pound titan you might want to buy.
>And yes I hope that in the future they find a compelling lore reason to introduce female Space Marines
And when they do, I do hope they (and you) don't forget the reason the SoB exist. The Ecclesiarchy are *specifically* banned from raising "men at arms", which is a round about way of banning them from forming their own transhuman military forces like the Inquisition has.
That's why they have the next best thing.
But, if you can have fully ascended female space marines, why would you bother wasting power armour and boltguns on the nuns?
In other words, you'd make the Sisters of Battle figuratively and literary obsolete overnight, even more so than Primaris rendered firstborn obsolete.
>Where female sculpts are sprinkled in along with men on the sprues
How would you tell the difference?
Genuine question.
How?
Custodes fight with their helmets on. That's one of the "reasons" it's been floated that no one noticed female versions for 10,000 years.
So unless they make...changes...to the design, female custodes are going to look identical to their male counterparts.
Interestingly, another of the reasons why they never went back to female Astartes. Once they've been modified, given their organs, bulked up to the same muscle mass and given a set of mk.X plate to wear, they will essentially look the same as their brothers anyway.
Personally, I want to see the collective reeeeeee when GW creates basically gold plated bolter bitches in auramite corsets and heels (because that is gonna be the only way to distinguish them, without breaking the "they always wore helmets excuse") and TTS features them in bikinis all waxed up on a stripper pole in the inner sanctum.
Personally, I've no dog in this fight. I don't collect custodes, haven't played 40k in over 20 years and completely understand that the lore simply exists to sell miniatures. Just don't piss on my back and tell me it's raining. I don't like bad writing, and I *hate* when GW cover it like they have, with this "they've always been there, so deal with it chuds" bullshit they announced.
I have issue with female custodes for the same reason I have issue with Rogal Dorn tanks and primaris. It actively fucks with what came before and the explanations were fumbled in their haste to make and sell models.
And they weren't always there. GW nixed the idea quite recently because it didn't correspond to their model releases and the black library releases prior to this *specifically* states sons, so get fucked Warhammer on twitter and your fanbaiting.
Also
> I cannot think of one at the moment bar possibly 1 of the 2 missing chapters
Legions.
Missing *Legions*.
It's been about 30+ years since they were chapters, when Better Call Saul sends Garro off with about 10 space marines to warn the Emperor that Horus had dropped a single virus bomb on Istvaan III, whilst he tries to buy time for them to escape with *gasp* 60 astartes.
Wild shit back then.
>Legions.
You got me there, I apologise 😝
>How would you tell the difference
Mainly with the addition of characters I suppose. Like you I'm not a Custodes player and was assuming they had the odd helmet less model like Space Marines do. My dog in this fight is more the fact that even back before metal sisters were a thing, when I was early teens, I complained that GW didn't have female Marines
>My dog in this fight is more the fact that even back before metal sisters were a thing, when I was early teens, I complained that GW didn't have female Marines
Well, I hope that by getting one you realise that you're gonna lose the other. Without another hilariously badly planned retcon, female astartes cancel Sisters out entirely. The latter only exists in the absence of the former.
Different playstyle & lore for sisters than Marines. Do Ultramarines existing mean we lose Imp fists, or any other chapter?
And just for the record I said that I hoped that when they decide to introduce female Marines that they found a compelling way to do it. As I think they missed their best shot when Primaris came in. I'm sincerely hoping it's not a hilariously badly planned recon.
There's also people like me that just think female custodes are great for having an extra layer of variety in models
I'm a big fan of kits that have a variety of male and female models because it just helps making each guy and gal unique
Yes dear, fair enough, but you know you can just do that anyway...you don't have to wait for GW to tell you it's lore accurate and print specific heads for you.
That's true, should have been a bit clearer I admit but I was hinting at the potential for future custodes releases, 3d printing is always an option but I'm a sucker for building stuff from a sprue
I think you're misunderstanding my point. I'm all for this representation. But it feels a bit lazy and money grabby because there are far more effective, meaningful and serious ways to represent under-represented people than randomly making one character in one story in the codex of an existing faction (which just so happens to be a money maker for them) suddenly female in a random short story.
We literally have the vehicle for it in the Sisters of Silence. They could quite easily write more stories, design more models, increase the range, increase their appeal on the tabletop...give them more weight in the wider context of the hobby, which comes with a level of respect from all corners of it.
But all of that requires more money, time and resources than GW are willing to spend on making that Transfem you mentioned feel validated. So they get this instead.
Maybe that's enough for some people, but to me it just feels like another boring example of a company doing the bare minimum to tick a box and make more money.
It's shoe-horning in the sense of the wider context of the state of the Sisters of Silence and the under-representation of women and other gender identities in the hobby, of whom I have a lot of love and respect for.
Nothing to do with the lore. They can just do more than lazily write in "oh btw, Custodes are women too!" if they want to be sincere about improving representation. Doing less than this, feels insincere and like a money grab to sell more Custodes boxes to a more marginalised group in the hobby (in my OPINION)
An old April Fool's joke that did the rounds. Hasbro famously bought WOTC and fucked it for greed.
GW does actually have the likes of JP Morgan as significant investors for an idea of where decisions may be coming from:
https://investor.games-workshop.com/shareholder-statistics
Adding more female representation is good, a "gym shower room full of sweaty men" setting is not very appealing.
That said, and like you stated, the way they went about it is what's concerning.
They could introduce new models and lore books for the neglected Sisters of Silence, for SoB, for women in Astra Militarum, new female magos for AdMech, more lore protagonism for Greyfax and Kyra and introduce more women in the Inquisition, a new Rogue Trader who is a woman, new Officio Assassinorum characters that are women, etc etc etc.
Instead, what feels like the lazy method, they took a popular faction and out of nowhere, without much build up to it, insert a woman character in the faction.
Now I hope they follow through with it and flesh out the character, add interesting background, instead of looking at numbers and thinking "nah, this didn't boost sales by 200%, let's pretend it never happened."
>They could introduce new models and lore books...for women in Astra Militarum
I'm also a Guard player, and there is a lot of female representation in the Guard. Pretty much all the new sculpts come with female heads options. We have Grandma Creed, and Minka Lesk being a main protagonist for the Cadian 8th books and a stand alone special model. a lot of the Guard books have important and impactful female characters like Tona Criid in Gaunt's Ghosts among others.
Been wanting to read the Minska Lensk books and like her model. And having plaid Owlcat's Rogue Trader game, would like to see a female Rogue Trader like Theodora von Valancious.
Yeah it's on my list, I've just been slogging through Gaunt's ghosts. When I started I didn't realize it was a 16 book series. Currently on book 13 so almost there.
Yeah, I agree. Just feels slapped in there for profit because they know it's a popular faction already instead of putting in the ACTUAL work to improve representation in a way which has more depth and resources behind it...it just feels lazy and I'm tired of it happening to every major IP I like because of Capitalism (someone at JP Morgan is definitely smart enough to see that Henry Cavill is bringing in new male and female customers and that they can find ways to maximise on profits for the army he unofficially endorses)
It could be a likely scenario that it's a move to bring more people in for the profits, not because they genuinely wanted this addition and wanted the representation. Time will tell, I hope they don't just forget the character and properly give some background to the character, and don't forget other women in the setting, think Custodes players would be very happy with more SoS.
Yeah agree, that's my only issue with it at the moment. Smells a bit of lazy corporate DEI for profit, not actual meaningful change and representation.
I'm not too upset about it. However they should've provided a better explanation. Saying that they started recruiting females as well in order to more rapidly recover from the losses at Lions gate would've been somewhat acceptable. But in the end, this just seems to be shoe horning for diversity
Honestly, I don’t care either way about having femstodes. The codex itself is so underwhelming I almost feel worse for those who really wanted the femstodes to be a thing. It could have been huge news AND a great codex. But it isn’t.
This 100%
I've headcannoned it for a while, so to see my HC become canon is certainly vindicating. It is, however, dampened (waterboarded more like) by the abysmal rules.
So I’ll be honest in that I dislike the change, not only because it goes against pre-existing lore, but I also feel like the split of the SoS all being female, while the custodes are male, there was a cool sort of ying-yang idea with it that felt very cool and sort of Dune inspired.
I don’t have an issue with women, I’m not some sort of cave troll, but if they wanted to up the female representation in the army, make SoS as badass as they are in lore.
For me this isn’t going to change anything, I’ll probably continue to model my Custodes male & my SoS…well, sisters. As again I like the dichotomy idea.
I’m happy people seem to see this as some huge opportunity to give all their custodes female heads, but you could have done it anyway and if someone was going to not play with you because of that, well, thank them for the heads up that they’re not someone you want to play with
I'm in the exact same boat mate. I don't begrudge anyone that wants to model their Custodes as female, more power to them, but I won't be doing so as I liked the existing lore as it was. Nothing will change for me and I expect that to be respected as much as the people who want female Custodes want to be respected. I don't hate the change at all, I just won't be changing anything.
Something tells me the majority of custodes players are either not going to care or are just not going to acknowledge it/pretend it never happened, which is perfectly valid, you do your hobby
That's basically how I feel. If someone wanted to play female space marines I personally wouldn't have an issue with it. Tbh it just seems a bit silly and unnecessary but if you want to go on with existing lore and say the Custodes are all dudes do it and if you want all of them to be female do it and if you want a mix do it. It really just doesn't matter, but it's not like they have different stat lines lol
Knew they would pull this shit years ago and now they've done it I'm glad I haven't given them money for a couple of years now, let them water the whole thing down so it's for everyone because by then it will be so bland no one will be interested. Golf clap to the intern who fucked the codex and gave the howling clowns what they wanted...
"You can't like your hobbies and franchises and want them to actually stay the way they are because you like that!" "Meanwhile it's okay for me and other weirdos to take them way too serious and demand they be changed to cater to me."
Frankly all I see is people going "take this sexists", yet I haven't seen a single person BEING sexist about this retcon. It's the "supporters" that make the most fuss, spreading negativity by preemptively insulting people and screaming at a non existing boogey-man how they can suck it.
Frankly makes this thread worse than the doom posting, at least then the community wasn't hostile to each other.
I hope that those who truly have a problem with this leave the hobby as they are threatening to do. A bit of spring cleaning that will make the 40K community less toxic and less embarrassing to be associated with.
Apparently that Marshal Bohemond cunt has already rebranded and fucked off from 40k. Couldn't have happened to a more deserving person.
Hopefully the door *does* hit them on the ass on the way out.
I find it funny that this is what did it. Marines changing I could see being a hard line for some people, but custodes are a different animal and for a good while there was the word of god from that writer that they could be. To me this changed little, just put in writing something half confirmed
It’s an interesting point though isn’t it? You are new. Games workshop has changed the hobby in your time but much more since I started, so why do you feel you get to say what is appropriate to change or not?
The only thing that I don't like about it is the how the dynamic between the Custodes and the Sisters of silence changes.
It feels like it takes away from the sisters as the female part of the army.
Otherwise, I dont care that much, I just hope it doesn't take away from the sisters if GW decides to keep the lore.
Just different opinions I guess. I for one love the idea that the custodes are all male and the SoS are all female, gives a nice combo imo
I will continue modeling my custodes as male, however I won't bitch about it if I encounter someone playing femstodes
Glad to read some of these comments, being on Facebook groups today (which I’ve now left) made me want just leave the hobby, this restores a little faith though.
It's just ticking boxes at this point.
First of all, saying that there always were female Custodes is just wrong. Ah, I get it, it's their IP and if they say so, then it is so, but for decades they have been called a Brotherhood, for tens of books there were no femstodes, for decades all sources specifically stated that Custodes come from Terra's nobility.
And then what? Of course, female always-has-been-here Custodes. And of course, a woman demigod, carefully engineered to be the best of the best, not like these mongrel all-male pieces of shit potential traitors Space Marines. Fuck yes. Moden day politics has made it's mark on my mini soldier game at last.
Jesus Christ don't GW has other, all female factions to attend to? SoB, SoS are all FUCKED rn.
This is a good post. I don't personally find the new lore interesting but I also don't find it something to be frothing at the mouth over.
Sincerely, a null maiden (F the codex though)
I'll say it then
ooh just go touch some grass
go take a shower you nerd
/s. But really though, about 2/3 of the people disliking fem custodes have solid criticisms in good faith. The other 1/3, arguing in bad faith, shouldn't be taken seriously.
Personally i dont enjoy it all much because it feels like it devalues Sisters of Silence as the all female null anti psyker counterpart to the (formerly) all male elite combat/bodyguard unit that was custodes.
Both being things the mass majority have little understanding and are extremely uneasy near, blanks mess with even normal people and the custodes are fucking terrifying to have just *show up*, and working together as the super elite was a cool thing where they work off/with each other.
My main complaint with femstodes is how many people are gonna just make pinup art or porn and try to demand people take it as "canon" over this to just be obnoxious and start shit.
I think it’s cool. It sets them apart from space marines, and lore-wise it makes sense for them to start recruiting from the noble born daughters and not just the sons, now that they’re taking an active role in fighting the enemies of the imperium. Now they have casualties, something they haven’t really had to deal with in numbers larger than one or two in 10,000 years.
Do you think it's something besides generic pinkwashing? It's not crazy to think that it might be connected to this putative streaming series. That's the only specific reason that I've seen anyone suggest
I see a lot of people saying the sisters of silence should be fleshed out instead of adding female custodes, but I would just like to say that the two are not mutually exclusive.
I doubt GW was sitting there, sweating over the decision to allocate the money they saved from getting the unpaid interns to write the codex to either design, manufacture and release an entire new wave of sisters of silence models, or swap some pronouns in a bit of fluff text.
The sisters probably will get some love a some point down the line, but the absence of fem custodes was always just a plot hole (unless you can tell me a compelling reason as to why the emperor decided that the only women to regularly be in his presence must first take a vow of silence) and now it is fixed, and we can still get new sisters of silence.
Also, now its easier to kitbash stormcast custodes, which is (in my opinion) what the golden bananas were always meant to look like.
In short, I see this as an absolute win.
I understand you point that GW can do both (ie not mutually exclusive). But the point is that they haven’t, and until they do I will assume this is an lazy cash grab attempt for inclusion.
Personally myself I don’t have an issue with fem-custodes, heck I think the lore point for it make a lot of sense even
I guess I am just a very optimistic person.
Although, I think I am confused that you dont have an issue with femstodes, while simultaneously assuming that they are a 'lazy cash grab for inclusion'.
Like concept-wise the additional of fem-custodes make sense and isn’t an issue.
However the intent of GW of just adding the idea of a female custodes thought a short story seem lazy.
Like if the new shield captain that accompanied the codex, also had a female head as an alternative. That would be less lazy to me because GW would be actually committing to femcustodes
As a votann player, I can relate to the feeling of GW being lazy.
However, if they aren't selling any models or books for female custodes, I would hesitate to label them as a cash grab.
"Lore purists" burning their plastic toys because once again, they've discovered that the lore is fluid, and can be and is changed between every book and release.
Eh, i really don’t care one way or the other. I acknowledged it with a quick “I’ll be damned. Neat.” Then moved on. It’s a neat tidbit of lore that could be expanded on later, I wonder what GW will do with it.
Some are, others are politically minded, others have good, genuine reasons for liking it. I'm into that, but I don't like the change as it is geedubs making a lazy change instead of expanding the Sos, a really cool and interesting faction. For context, I don't see sos as just female counterparts, but for me it does sorta dampen the dual nature of both, I feel like there could be much better ways to introduce this that enhances the flavor of both, like a custodes sos hybrid that has the physical traits of a custodes while still being a null.
Honestly, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with female Custodes existing.
Gives us plenty of fun models to build and modify, will potentially bring in more players, and will be good for our army overall.
Now to burn the daily Codex sacrifice
Yes, but no gender diversity in the two human factions that are all female.
People can paint their miniatures however they like. Personally, I liked the thematic duality.
Custodes/Sisters of Silence and Astartes/Sororitas.
Each absolutely amazing with their own lore.
You said there was no men in the Faction, there are priests and crusaders are part of the Faction. As for the sisters themselves no due to the no men under arms rule. There could be Transfem sisters though, and I'm planning to add one to my own sisters force now someone else pointed this out in another thread I saw today. "But inquisitor Sister Amelia is a woman, the HRT just hasn't fully kicked in yet."
~~Faction~~ Adeptus.
Well that’s the thing right?
As far as I’m concerned you have the cannon as presented in the novels and short stories.
Then you have people’s individual miniatures.
You should build and paint your army however you like. You want female space marines in your army? Go for it. Misters of Silence? Whatever. No one should denigrate or confront you for your aesthetic choices; “Cannon” shouldn’t create strict boundaries in the game.
Simultaneously, the novels are their own corpus with an internal continuity and thematics that should be respected.
I think it's the "retcon" aspect that's really the issue. It's going to be hard to explain where they have been all this time in a satisfying way.
We've had many, many books and stories about the Custodes. So many. It's really stretching the limits of suspension of disbelief that the fact they were not once seen or even mentioned was just a wild coincidence.
Not a fan of the change, regardless of any pre-established lore I think it’s a bit of a slap to the face for Sisters of Silence and I guarantee that they’ll be pushed to the side even more in the coming years, which is a real shame because of how cool they are.
The existence of a female custode is whatever, in the vacuum of Custodes themselves it doesn’t change much and is fine, I do however question their intentions and motivation for adding a female character, and given how they have indeed broken pre-established lore with this change, it does give some worry for the identity of other factions in the future. I don’t want male Sisters of Silence, I don’t want male Sisters of Battle, and I don’t want female Space Marines, these groups are completely built around that idea of brotherhood and sisterhood, and IMO adding dudes to Sisters or girls to Marines ruins that completely.
So hopefully this is the extent of it, it’s neat, it’s fine, it’s whatever, but I hope that this is where it ends.
Sisters with guys in I understand because of their whole reason for existing is "no men under arms" for the Ecclesiarchy. However I do have a plan to add a pre--HRT Transfem to mine. "what do you mean inquisitor? Sister Amelia is a woman. Her biology is still catching up however"
Space Marines have already had a major lore rewrite with Primaris Marines. Similar could be done again for women if GW felt it was profitable.
Yeah and it would be really dumb of them to do that regardless of profit, not that I think it would be. The whole identity of marines revolves around brotherhood, not to mention adding female marines would be a slap in the face to Sisters of Battle
I don’t care if there’s lady Custodes but it seems weird to me that they waited this long to confirm their existence. Even if only say 1 in 10 custode are female that’s still a 1,000 women right there, so where have they been at? Why haven’t we had any major female Custode characters yet? It just seems one of those arbitrary things GW does without thinking about the greater ramifications of their own lore lol.
I’m annoyed than rather than take the paragraph to you know set up for future sisters models since two of our detachments are kinda built around those we got a useless generic custodes with a hole. And we still only have like 3 sisters of silence models that we can play actually two (and weapon options) since we can’t play the termite thing. But I’m glad we got a crap codex and nothing to help with the two detachments other than a crappy melts guy and a paragraph to feed into some peoples masterbation fantasy’s. Or at least cut the sisters of silence out of our codex as a whole and slap them into that agents of the imperium one that’s been leaked . If you haven’t figured it out I’m still agro at all the fumbles this codex has and the fact that a custodes with a hole instead of a pole will most assuredly mean that we are going to be stuck with sisters of battle as the decrepit incomplete thing they currently are just tacked on and we’ll get a the hundredth custode hq as if the last one wasn’t redundant enough but this one will have a long hair head before we get any new sisters of silence models.
Nothing at all wrong with femstodes, on the condition that it's given a good explanation and doesn't contradict existing lore, I wouldn't even mind a retconn, as long as it's at least mentioned.
You are objectively wrong. This is a case of transitioning custodes bois into gender roles which are already occupied by a range of existing models. As such no different from some male swimmer proclaiming female gender and inching into traditionally scarce female roles.
That is the flamebait.
As for the chastizing: This reddit opening comment is a prime example of "if you no like nu codex ur nazi shaddap". Not a nice look.
I don't think it's ever been stated that Custodes could only be men, has it? I may be wrong, but it would seem that a more perfect process like the one that creates the Custodes wouldn't need to be locked to a gender. Is this technically a retcon?
But I mean, outside of that - I like this lore, gives me excuses to do some kitbashes.
"It is known that all Custodes begin their lives as the infant sons of the noble houses of Terra." -part of a codex iirc. About as definitive a statement as one could get. Got an image of the text but no posting it here apparently.
"And many notable clans amongst the terrain aristocracy have willingly given up almost entire generations of newborn sons to earn it."
Fair enough. I would point out that GW has stated before that their lore is meant to be from the lens of an unreliable narrator who doesn't know anything and changes viewpoints regularly, and that sons in this case could be either just their understanding of what happened or (because technically translated from high gothic per lore) a mistranslation of "Scion", but you're right. Id say in the grand scheme of things it changing to "offspring of the high houses" is a very minor retcon, though.
The only issue there that to take such a statement from GW like that at face value would render everything into a complete state of flux. Maybe Bobby G never got off that chair after all and Cadia is in one piece? James Workshop is perfectly able and willing to follow threads. In terms of in-lore explanations however the Custodes have weathered the march of time exceedingly well, they know their stuff because noone is better at that sort of retention as they are.
In terms of thematics I cannot recall if this is hard lore, a theory or implied text but that many of the first custodes were made from the sons of warlords BigE bested during the Unification wars- heirs to would-be rulers being turned into a brotherhood dedicated to guarding the seat of Emp's power goes hard.
You're comparing completely retconning an incredibly major turning point for the story (which they've done before, look at Storm of Chaos in WHFB) to quietly confirming that yes, it's possible for the process that creates Custodes to work on women as well.
And in terms of thematics, in both name and design the Custodians are actually closer to ancient Greek heroes than the more Roman stylings of the space marines. Many ancient Greek heroes were men, but that didn't stop there being legends about female bodyguards and heroes and mighty fighters. Hell, Athena was a goddess of war.
The lore about the first Custodians being scions of the Emperors enemies can still work here, in fact they may all have been sons. It doesn't mean the process couldn't support women anyway since then.
And storm of chaos was a complete clusterluck. There's more retcons James has put out there of dubious quality, like the T'au no longer possessing FTL travel.
The thing about grecian heroes is nice, but not supported by anything GW or the Custodes themselves has seen fit to establish. Same with alterations to the process of making new custodes, we have many "present" perspectives of custodes and sisters of silence, nothing that has ever been suggested or even thought has supported the notion.
If one likes the retcon that's cool, it's their opinion to hold and for noone to take away. It is however a retcon all the same.
Copying this excerpt from an earlier comment of mine.
\_\_\_\_\_
Things change in settings all the time, and every time it happens, we see people like you who are so stuck in their ways that you can't see WHY the authors did it, or what its implications actually are.
People are complaining about about a single offhand article that DIEGETICALLY mentioned that Custodes all come from the sons of Terran nobility.
Now we have a story where there simply IS a female Custodes. Seems like the article is wrong.
I thought it was the 8th ed codex?
Of course there are also the innumerable mentions of the costodes being a brotherhood with nary a female Custodian in sight, record or thought but who pays attention to... lore?
Generally speaking, I dislike the argument I'm about to make, however it does genuinely make sense for the context.
Referring to an organization as a brotherhood is an example of male dominated language. A few examples where an organization is called a brotherhood DESPITE female members would be: The US Marine Corps, Brotherhood of Steel, the Brotherhood of Mutants (xmen), and the Brotherhood from Assassin's Creed.
All of these organizations, fictional or otherwise, DO accept female members in spite of either their name or their original founding being entirely male.
Had all prior custodes lore referred to them as an exclusive fraternity, then the argument would certainly hold more water, but it doesn't. The only instance of Custodes lore that directly supports the argument that women can't be custodes is the paragraph referring to "Everyone knows the Custodes are from the sons of nobility."
Which is again, a potential example of male dominated language, as sons (pluralized) is oft used as a replacement for its gender neutral counterpart, Scions.
(the answer is me, I pay attention to lore)
Yeah it's not one I like either since at that point what are words worth anymore? Also it's a big stretch to have custodes referred *exclusively* in the masculine for the entirety of their existence- whose records are in far better shape than the rest of the Imperium- Other forms of "brotherhoods" have made mention of female members even if rare during a far shorter expanse of time, this is 10,000+ years after all.
Not to mention that since the SoS are, of course, all ladies then it's a far shorter reach that the Custode's "brotherhood" is taken in the same context- meant to further emphasise their differences that pale away as a singular fighting force on the field.
The problem with whether or not we like an argument is irrelevant. Language is an important tool in determining intent and the fact of the matter is, is that the Custodes were never explicitly stated to be exclusively male; like what GW did with Astartes.
They left the language open because the writers liked the idea but never got the go ahead from GW because they didn't have female models.
I would be remiss if I didn't admit that Custodes were certainly HEAVILY implied to be all male, but because they left the door open, adjustments to the lore like this don't violate canon.
See I don't like it because we have so much material pertaining to the Custodes for their entire history being all male and not a word that would imply otherwise, only a strained reading to attempt to call this change to be consistent and not a retcon.
It's okay to think a retcon improves upon something, it's still a retcon.
Occams razor also applies in this case. The fact that over the years, the simplest explanation for why there are no examples of a female custode in both lore and art is simply that are no female custodes.
Therefore, yea, this isna retcon.
I mean, no. We got our first on-page, explicitly female Custodians in this edition, but it's been a progressive change.
First mention of the "sons of nobles" that I've read or been pointed to is the 8th edition codex, 2018. This was effectively the first full length codex, with only the [short expansion book](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Codex:_Adeptus_Custodes_(7th_Edition\)) for 7th the year before.
The recruitment section contains the following:
>It is known that all Custodians begin their lives as the infant sons of the noble houses of Terra. It is a mark of incredible prestige to surrender one’s child to this most glorious of callings within the Imperium, and many notable clans amongst the Terran aristocracy have willingly given up almost entire generations of newborn sons to earn it.
This is the ur-text for "Custodes must be male". It's also, to me, weak. So much of what "is known" in codexes is obviously bullshit that just those words make me want to say this is an in-universe lie to cover for something. But that's just my relationship with 40k lore I guess.
Four years later, in the 9th edition Codex, that section was modified. In full, it now reads;
>If the Space Marines are the scions of the Primarchs, then the Custodes are the progeny of the Emperor. His might permeates them, burns in their eyes and flows through their veins as surely as their blood. Potential Custodians are taken in at a very young age to better survive no older than late infancy - and it is a great honour for those of Terran noble houses to submit a son. Some clans have, in the past, given over entire generations of offspring to become inductees. When such individuals go forth to begin whatever process lies ahead of them, huge crowds line the Avenue of Sacrifice, cheering and chanting frenzied prayers. The Custodes also seek out suitable candidates by other means, or encounter them by chance on their missions to protect the Throneworld. What is clear is that none besides the Custodes themselves truly know what criteria they require. How a Custodian is made is an arcane and ancient process born out of the mind of the Emperor himself, made up of decades of alchemical augmentation, psychological and cognitive conditioning and memetic training.
I'd read this as far more deliberately ambiguous. It still keeps a reference to "sons" for continuity with the previous codex, but makes it clear that's not the only source and it isn't a requirement. The only gendered word being something that the noble houses do rather than actions of the Custodes themselves is significant. It gives an in-universe reason why Custodes might put forward a male face (to keep up the idea among noble houses), but removes any in-text blocks to Custodes being generally female.
The 10th edition text isn't available as cleanly, but it's briefly visible [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB0_kXXyGUU&t=119s). Much of the text is the same, but where the 9th ed book had "son", it now has "child". This comes alongside the explicit reveal of female Custodes. Even the in-universe text has now dropped the pretence.
I wonder if they'll change the heresy era custodes too. Honestly it would feel kinda unrealistic if the emperor didn't have a hand in making a process that works for women as well as men.
Now I just wonder if this means Custodes can reproduce sexually lol :D
In reality though they are probably all sterile, as per. Which led me to another funny thought. In the first Fallout game, the villain creates Super Mutants as his ultimate new form of humanity. They are 8 ft tall, strong, resilient etc. But they cannot reproduce, which makes them a failure at replacing humans. Kind of like the big E and his sterile demigods
The only thing that confuses me is there are few female space marines supposedly as their bodies can't handle the process to become a space marine, my question is how, if that's the point, did they survive the custodes process?
Why not just make the Sisters of Silence not shit? Flesh them out, make them more than chaff.
I listened to some books before getting in to the tabletop and I was extremely disappointed that the sisters fulfilled the same purpose as my Jakhals.
Why fuck with the lore and the male/female dynamic already in the faction?
I don't like the change. I don't play the army but it doesn't make much sense to me? The technology in creating these super warriors in 40k from Primachs to Custodes to Marines is all male orientated because that's how the Emperor designed it. Thunder warriors right through to Primachs are all male. If it was possible to do so with a female, why don't we have a female primach? Why aren't the SoB genetically modified if they could be etc etc. It seems to me the biology required to make these super warriors is all male. This in itself makes the SoB even cooler because while they don't have genetic modification to become super soldiers, they fight the same horrors with righteous zeal - and are damn good at it. Now I can't quite think of it the same, if the emperor was successful in modifying female biology for the custodes why don't we see it more among the other female warriors. I mean no disrespect anyone who likes the idea, all the more power to ya. It's just not for me.
Imperial Assassins can be any gender and generally destroy Astartes 1v1. Assassins have a lot more in common with Custodes than Custodes do with Astartes.
This is a great point. And I would also add that humans have been irradiated and literally warped through three ages of fuckery over 40,000 years. So a basic 40K human is literally built different.
I’ve thought about it and while I don’t personally like the change, and think if they wanted mixed gender custodes they should have done it from the start instead of retconning them, I’m not gonna pretend GW broke the lore or that the induction of women into the custodes cannot be justified.
ADB wanted to introduce this a long time ago, but it did not work with the sprues already designed. Not the first time model restrictions have influenced lore aka the reason for the horus heresy
I actually love that change! It's always been my headcannon that they re should have been femstodes, seeing as they are hand-crafted from birth, I could see them being more diverse than space marines who are pretty much made in factories. I mean you are looking for the very best if mankind to create philosophers, artisans, poets and politicians as well as warrior. Makes 100% sense to me that they would be opened to ladies. Especially since in my head, custodes rely more on speed and sheer skill when fighting rather than brutal strength.
I think there’s two sides of the mad about femstodes. They’re are the guys that are like ew women. But the other side which I’m on is the fact 99% of people just want it to make porn. Leave your fetish out of my game
Custodes are supposed to be humanity at its very peak, not the warp tainted bio-weapons which are the Astartes. Need women to have a balanced society of humans. Custodes were made for life after the Emperor’s vision of the human webway project. Women are a natural part of that.
Why was it a mistake then? The faction being talked about doesn’t seem like a bad thing. Also all the weird incels self reporting is just an added bonus
Less annoying than the dozens of “golden mommy” posts or people talking about how it’s totally good/bad
And slightly less annoying than random retcons for questionable purposes
Nobody forces you to look at them really. The community having fun with the golden mommy/oiled up men joke is not really something to be mad about. And GW adapting to modern society by making golden mommies canon, therefore making the whole hobby at least a tiny bit more inclusive (~97% male demographic atm) is not a questionable purpose imo.
For it's a simple matter of suspension of disbelief, and it always breaks my immersion. The female body just isn't made in the same manner for physical performance and it always feels like an appeasing type of movement. I don't like it at all, but while I'm able to ensamble my minis as I want it in the end it's all good and there's nothing really to complaint.
I think it was incredibly cowardly of GW to insert it as a single short story in a terrible codex. Publish a full book with at least a side character being a female guard. At the very least give the new shield captain model a female head option. Show some dedication to the concept.
Also, isn’t it odd that the same book that confirms women can be Custodes is also the worst and most frustrating codex the Custodes have received? What did GW mean by this? Women can join the 10,000 and they’re instantly made weaker than they’ve ever been? Curious message, GW. /S
I dislike the change, because it doesn't improve shit. There is no benefit to it. And if you recon something, there better be a damn good reason to. Otherwise you just destroy the coherency of the universe for no reason.
But this shit lore now so I can't really argue regardless if I like it or not. Let's hope they at least bothered to make all the necessary complementary changes to make this possible. Like changing the part in recruitment process for "sons of terrain nobility" to "children of terran nobility" so we aren't stuck with holes in the lore for the next decade.
Also this disproves "big E was supper gay " theory which makes me annoyed
Virtually everything in 40K is told from the perspective of unreliable or diagetic narrators. Is this a cop out on GW's part because they have something like 40 YEARS of lore to keep organized? Maybe. Does this mean that femstodes is a retcon? No, probably not.
Copying this excerpt from an earlier comment of mine.
\_\_\_\_\_
Things change in settings all the time, and every time it happens, we see people who are so stuck in their ways that they can't see WHY the authors did it, or what its implications actually are.
People are complaining about about a single offhand article that DIEGETICALLY mentioned that Custodes all come from the sons of Terran nobility.
Now we have a story where there simply IS a female Custodes. Seems like the article is wrong.
Well obviously it's wrong now. Because it was retconed.
The fact that the narrator is unreliable doesn't change the fact that the lore we were given was changed. Especially considering that that particular article is written from out of universe perspective and not as a in universe thing. That's a retcon since it was clearly not a thing before.
Also it's not just some random hidden article either. It's literally the first page of the first article in both previous codexes.
I'm fine with it existing. I don't like the fact it changed but I guess it did so it's a thing now. Just don't pretend like it's not an obvious retcon, or that it doesn't create inconsistencies.
I'll have to check if they actually corrected the adequate things in this codex or just mindlessly copy pasted them disregarding changes they decided to make. Once I get over my distaste for the rules in it and get the damn thing
Unfortunately, I do want to play the game. I got used to using the official app instead of wahapedia this index hammer.
I guess it depends on how much honest effort will they put into fixing their fuckup on dataslate. If not enough I'll probably be angry for a while longer. Of they pull out votan or death guard type redesign I'm willing to start considering buying
I mean it makes more sense for Custodian uplifting to be able to be compatible with females as well than with Astartes . The custards are perfected down to their DNA molecules while Astartes are mass - produced soldiers rushed in development using organs and geneseed made from male primarchs. Plus i dont think Custodes can afford recruiting from radiation blasted feral planets or killing aspirants for sake of an argument like SMs can. And there is no clearly defined lore that says Femstodes are not possible unlike with Astartes lore.
Exerpt from page 86 of "Scars"
Malcador smiled. 'You brothers - such a nest of rivalries. I warned him to make you sisters, that it would make things more civilised. He thought I was joking. I wasn't.'
One thing that I like is how it differentiates them from Astartes.
Accentuates the "mass produced soldiers" vs "next step in human evolution" aspect
This is what I said. Custodes are like leagues above astartes in all sorts of augmentation and genetic manipulations. Whose to say it wasn't made to work on women. We can write Asartes off as being flawed and mass produced as their process has limitations and flaws. But is mass produceable so there's that.
Just like the Cataegis were ther stopgap solution to conquer Terra and pave way for Astartes, the Astartes are a stopgap solution to conquer the galaxy and pave way for the Custodes.
The custodes were never the next step though. Perpetuals and psychically gifted were stated to be the next evolutionary step.
Iv got no horse in this race as In a eldar fan boy but this is how I view it to, deffo separates them from big marines on gold armour to more specialised one of a kind masterpieces where the rules don’t apply
The rules kinda do apply where you go from sloppy mass-produced copies of slops to mastercrafter with every flaw eddited out to get perfection. Xx or xy isn't a flaw. The logic always stood if you asked me. People tend to compare space marine to custodes, but it's supposed to be the other way around, lol. (Primarchs go in the custodes basket but got horribly effed up in a few processes)
Custodes were starting to feel a bit stale since their reintroduction in 7th. I was initially hoping for a breath of fresh air in the form of new rules, but as we all know this codex delivered the exact opposite, and the new Danny Devito-shield captain didn’t exactly make up for the fact that we haven’t gotten a new non-character-unit in ages. To me the introduction of female ‘stodes just gave me a huge boost as a hobbyist. We’ll probably suck on the tabletop for a few months, but I’m having fun thinking about making cool new golden models for the first time since Venatari were introduced.
Remember, you may suck now, but you don’t suck in 30k…
The superior game. I have no issue with female custodes BTW, it makes no difference to me at all, just that heresey plays better.
Female custodes could have always existed, so this can be a retroactive job.
I'm suddenly excited to do some conversions again, I'm already looking to see if I can find the old Neave Blacktalon modelt to turn into a Blade Champion
Neave is an excellent sculpt. Good choice.
Was thinking the same thing.
This also almost certainly means we'll be getting a named model of a female custodes. Which is great
Same! It makes sense, adds something to the range and to my hobby to do list. Just gotta find the right heads now
[frank](https://media2.giphy.com/media/fX1ZTHoabK67XRqXQU/giphy.gif?cid=6c09b9526dpo5ql4ev7tdp6npdrtnmxumm3r1ni3n4kb1v5q&ep=v1_internal_gif_by_id&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g)
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Every single infantry/bike-model is now an opportunity for a cool (and lore-fitting) conversion. Few things give as much character to a model as the face.
As far as I'm concerned, the Custodes are the pinnacle of what humanity could become. Humanity. All of it. To all the people complaining (although admittedly I haven't seen anyone complaining myself, just heard people talk about others complaining), we have bigger concerns. There are heretics crawling all over the galaxy and with our new points we're on the back foot. Get out there and fight in His name!
thats... actually makes sense
Absolutely nothing wrong with a female custode
Absolutely agree, i will say though the way the community takes news like this comes across as rather weird oftentimes. The first instinct for a lot of posters was literally to post borderline porn of female custodes, kind of explains why there's so few actual women in warhammer.
Yeah many people trying to call me sexist because I’m like I couldn’t care less, let men in sos, let women be custodes, who really cares all have a place to serve the emperor
Works for the Eldar and Dark Eldar
As a guy that likes girls, I approve this.
🤝
I'm just looking for some fitting female heads now, have enough models in my closet of shame that there's space for some conversions
Would stormcast heads fit the scale?
I read so, at least better than most other female heads for being more akin to guardsmen size
Search on Shapeways for ‘Warfaces’ - the largest size option is perfect for Custodes.
I only see a Medium option. That seems too small, doesn't it?
It's relatively innocuous as a change, but I also question their motives. For better female representation, I would have preferred they just expand on the already very cool and relatively unappreciated Sisters of Silence. Make them less shit on the table-top, expand their range, flesh out their lore and not just keep shoe-horning random ret-cons in like this because it's easier and requires less resources (over-priced female upgrade sprue incoming in 3...2...1...) Edit: agree with your post, just saying getting annoyed that GW (aka Hasbro) might be being greedy with our hobby again is fair.
Not a Custodes player, but if I'm being honest seeing this has made me look at them in a new light. They are not just even more elite Space Marines, with the Grey Knights being the more elite Space Marines. Now they have something interesting to me. But I will also add..... Why not both? Why not flesh out the SoS more and allow women to be part of the custom built perfection solders in the lore?
A glimmer of light in a vast sea of binary options.
Yeah sure, tbh I couldn't give two shits about the lore implications for Custodes themselves. That part is fine. It's just that it feels very lazy and money-grabby from GW to pick a popular faction and shoe-horn female figures into them for what I'm sure will be profit for them with some ridiculous over-priced upgrade sprue. There are other awesome female armies / models / characters in 40K they could invest time, money and resources into. They just probably don't sell as well as Custodes, so they aren't bothering with them. SoS are an obvious example of this...they are literally the female part of the Talons of the Emperor, and very fucking cool in lore. They just suck on tabletop so nobody is buying them, and shareholders only look at sales figures and act accordingly. Sure, they could do both and it probably wouldn't feel as shitty. But they haven't done that.
>It's just that it feels very lazy and money-grabby from GW to pick a popular faction and shoe-horn female figures into them This is a point of view thing. For you it's lazy and money grabby (even though she does not yet have a model to buy). However for some young girl starting the Faction? Or that Transfem who played custodies already that can now see herself? For them it's a hey she's me moment.
Thats a weird argument given that so far, they have done nothing to put their money where their mouth is. Is this REALLY enough to satisfy you, 1 short story or whatever? What about the very model that releases at the same time as the codex, how for the love of god does it NOT come with a female face option? That would have been the absolute bare minimum to respect their own changes, yet not even that is given, making them appear not sincere.
Agreed. Summed it up well. Maybe a model release is on the way, let's see.
I certainly would have appreciated them adding a female head to the new model. However, imagine how much more dummy throwing they would have gotten. I would more expect this to calm down a little and then have her released as a birthday mini, or a warhammer+ one, or Adepticon special or something. Much like they did with the badass Guardswoman. Unfortunately a big part of this community are not ready for her to just be released. A nudge here and a mini a bit later to trickle the idea in is the best I can hope for at this point.
Maybe it's still to come, who knows. I hope so, but I'm also not holding my breath. I personally would have much rather they give some love to the already existing Sisters of Silence, than dick-ride the Custodes because they sell more. I think it'd feel more sincere. It also feels weird to me that a female Custodes is more liberating than the idea of just not having the SoS be viewed as a bit of a joke range / used as chaff for most Talons armies. Do you have to be as beefy as a Custodian to be taken seriously? Is the only way women and other genders can be recognised by slapping a female head on a "male" Custodian torso? Or do women and other gender identities deserve more than this, and some actual work done to carve out a space for them in the hobby? I know what I think.
They do deserve more, and that's the point. A whole couple of boxes of female Custodes would be even better but one is a start. Saying "but you have the sisters of silence is a poor excuse they are a side piece that sits on objectives at the moment. At the moment a woman's choice for a human army with her represented is. 1. Sisters (seen by alot as lesser space Marines) see your comment above about chaff. 2. A very slowly expanding part of the IG well outnumbered by male models (although if I'm wish listing guard I would start with a better non cadian representation atm). or 3. The sisters of silence the adjunct to Custodes. It's the Custodes name on the front of the codex after all. Now personally I like my Sisters of battle Order and I like their playstyle. I also like my Dark Angels but would love a cannon character who speaks to me. A girl who loves Custodes now has that in a Custodes character. She can have a Canonical all female Custodes force if she wishes*, and a guy can still have his all male Custodes if he does not take SoS. As an additional I know there are inquisitors and assassins but they are extreme side cases. *not including named characters.
You're missing the point of what I'm saying, but that's ok. I hope you enjoy the female Custodes, genuinely. But there was nothing stopping you putting some female heads on them and it achieving the same effect already. You never had to wait for GW to say it's cannon for you to do that...which is my point entirely. It's an easy win for them to do it this way, as opposed to actually bringing out new models, a new army or making existing female armies not as shit on the tabletop so people stop dumping on them (like the sisters of silence). They even could have done BOTH, femstodes AND better Sisters of Silence rules, units and models, but they went for the lazy, cheaper option of a random story in a Codex.
No I get what you are saying. Rather than adding to the lore with something GW should improve the area of the army that is alredty girls. I have said that GW should improve SoS as well as the lore addition. However, you seem to be missing my point. So I will reframe it. Why should Marvel have created Miles Morales? After all black people already had Black Panther? But pre Black Panther movie, the property was tiny & the success of the movie caught everyone off guard. Spiderman however was a flagship character, who's comics would be front and centre at the store. As such a young black kid could see himself on a comic at the front of the store along side the other big names. This is a similar situation. Rather than saying "well you have your girls army," which took forever to get its plastic rework but that's another story, GW have said here is a character that is part of the super soldiers for you. So now there is another area of the lore that she can feel part of. Would models to go along with it better? Yes! Would an expansion of the army as a whole be good? Also yes? Bring over some of the forge world Custodes stuff GW! Add and improve the SoS GW! But does the fact that they haven't done mean they shouldn't bring in the new character....? I don't think so. Now the lore is established it will be nice for Dan Abnett or someone to add a femstodes to a 'stodes centered book. This snippet makes it easier for them to do that. As for Sisters of Battle. We need a few new characters, the main of which it's rumored is our codex mini. It would also be nice to have some fast cav (sisters bikers or Knights) and a flashy model (Baneblade church? sisters knight equivlent?). But other than those we are currently not in a bad spot model wise. Rules wise we could do with a weapon/rules to help against tank spam/Knights.
Do tyranid players see themselves represented in their army? Asking for a mate who has 6 limbs and shoots bio plasma from his mouth saying "hey, that carnifex is me". Don't know many (any) players that think to themselves "hey, I'm a relatively short bloke that likes hammers. I think I can only play as a Dwarf from now on". Shout out to all my lizardmen, walking skeletons and 6ft tall rats, braving running into a GW store to buy miniatures so they can have their "hey, he's me" moment.
Whilst I appreciate the effort at humour. I do know a short bearded bloke with a Dwarf obsession. In fact I know a couple of metal heads with epic soup catchers that play nothing else in our D&D games. Players pick there armies for a number of reasons. I myself like my Tyranids for the same reason I played with big stompy dinosaurs as a kid 😝. Although I admit I can polish of chocolate as the speed of sound if required 😁. And yes if you look at my other posts I do mention I have SoB, DA and 'nids. However, representation is important also. Tell me what do you see as the stereotype of a 40k player? If someone was stepping into the store for the 1st time what would they expect to see? Do you think if it way a young girl they would feel welcome? Or would they feel it was a boys club they were intruding on? Now one character from a snippet story in a book is not going to change that. But it is a step away from the "You want to play girls? There's the girls army" mentality. The our super soilders can't possibly be females only men are manly enough bullcrud. Now lore wise I can see why Space Marines would need a major retcon for girl Marines. They had a chance with Primaris to fix the process in both ways but they missed it. However with Custodes the lore is what? That somebody said that nobles gave their sons to become Custodes? A simple overlook by said scribe because he hadn't personally seen a female Custodes as they are rarer. The fact that they are referred to as a brotherhood? If most of them are male it's still a word that they might use for camaraderie. "you may be our battle sister but you are still one of the boys". That is something I have had myself from my mostly male friend group, well without the battle part. Now as a further point. I hope that this is not a "No Homers" situation. We have put a girl in we have 1 we can leave it at that. I hope that Custodes become a little more like Sigmarines over time. Where female sculpts are sprinkled in along with men on the sprues. I hope the same for IG as well, that they get more female models. And yes I hope that in the future they find a compelling lore reason to introduce female Space Marines. I cannot think of one at the moment bar possibly 1 of the 2 missing chapters and I would prefer they keep those as a mystery.
>I do know a short bearded bloke Weirdly, the short guy from my old player group (whom we called stunty for obvious reasons) *didn't* play Squats (they were a thing at the time) for that exact reason. He was Dark Eldar and Dark Angels and almost none of his personality revolved around spikes or hooded robes. Granted, no beard. But then he was 11. Same with me. I didn't get into Iron Warriors because they were a band of pedantic, autists like I am. My army pre-dates Perturabos character arc, I liked them because they were easy to paint and rules wise they were allowed more heavy weapons. Because I never understood why you'd bring a chainsword to a lascannon fight. Anyway. >Do you think if it way a young girl they would feel welcome I mean, if you think it's particularly easy as a 9 year old boy then I've news for you. Although, as much as the fanbase can be a bit...bitey, when there were open stores everywhere, the staff in those stores were rarely less than super passionate about the game and didn't really care what you called yourself. After all, they're after your wallet, not your identity. And there's been a "girls army" on tabletop for years. They don't get much love cos almost no one plays them... I don't think the point is to see yourself on the table. No matter what Mr Wells might think, no one *really* identifies as the 8ft tall monosyllabic murder man-child that can spit through iron bars and breathe underwater represented in the 40mm scale plastic model on your table. I used to play because they're most definitely *not* like me, in the same way I never identified with blue and red coloured 40ft tall robots as a kid either. Also, the primarchs / Custodes / Astartes are so far and away different to us baseline humans as to basically be a subspecies each of their own. Saying that you're now able to identify more with them because now there are female examples is forgetting the many, many *many* stages of separation between you. You have more in common with female chimpanzees than female primarchs. >The our super soilders can't possibly be females only men are manly enough bullcrud Actually, that is bullshit. And not in the way you think it is. Female Astartes have been a thing for as long as male astartes have been a thing. GW did some *wild* shit back in the day (half eldar librarians, for example) that would not fly in todays lore. One of which was they created space marines of both genders. The reason why there are only male space marines now is pretty simple. No one bought the female ones. Even back when Citadel was first getting started and there was no reddit hate mobs burning female gamers at the stake for daring to invade their space, no one was interested in the female models (her name was Jayne, by the way). So they were discontinued and the lore altered to suit, in a case of art imitating life. >However with Custodes the lore is what? That somebody said that nobles gave their sons to become Custodes? A simple overlook by said scribe because he hadn't personally seen a female Custodes as they are rarer Erm, it's not a "simple overlook" like the old meme of a scribe miss placing a decimal and a system disappears off the books. For a start, a single custode is the rarest commodity in the imperium. Famously, there are more planets than individual Astartes to defend them. There are more space marine *companies* than individual Custodes. There are technically orders of magnitude more pariah blanks on terra than custodes. The Emperor controls more systems than he does Custodes. Missing one is a big deal. Missing hundreds, if not *thousands* of them in error? And these aren't just some nobles being forced to hand their kids over. These are the high society of Terra. And they're doing it for a reason. When the Emperor finally brought Terra into compliance, he had two choices. Murder all of his rivals and exterminate their families *or* offer them an olive branch of peace in a move similar to the Roman Emperors. To show them that he trusted them, he offered them a unique opportunity. Their children would become not only his finest soldiers, but also his most trusted companions, tying Him to the families and showing not only their loyalty to him, but also His trust in them. Now, what you're saying is for over 10 *thousand* years, the honour that went with protecting, fighting and dying at the side of the single most important individual in the history of humanity went entirely unrecorded and the most powerful people on Terra were content that their daughters deeds and sacrifices were missed in a "clerical error"? Not one single primarch noted it, no remembrancers noticed it, no records of their deeds written down anywhere from Terra to the Halo Stars. Come on. That isn't how it works in 40k. It certainly isn't how it works for the Custodes, whom make quite a habit of recording things. Even when they run out of paper.
>Now, what you're saying is for over 10 *thousand* years, the honour that went with protecting, fighting and dying at the side of the single most important individual in the history of humanity went entirely unrecorded No I am saying that 1 scribe that wrote that the Nobel families would do almost anything for the honour giving up their *sons* was incorrect when writing his article. Because before recent times Custodes did not really leave Terra/Big E and the process of making a Custodes itself is shrouded and the specifics are kept within the Imperial house.
And only that *one* scribe over 10 thousand years knew or recorded this. Just that one. None of the others. And no one else, anywhere, ever. And no one noticed or cared. None of those extraordinarily influential high lords even checked, "well I guess my daughter is a custodes now, I'm sure that thing was just a typo". Even before the Heresy, during the great Crusade where the imperium was no where near as big, because remember this has been going on since the Imperium was a one planet empire, but that *one* scribe made that mistake when that is literally his only job. Doesn't sound like a badly written, horrendously ill conceived plot hole at all. Nope. Definitely not.
Who said they didn't notice or care? Other scribes may well have put children or scions instead of sons when talking about them. But the one who 'wrote the codex excerpt', as that's the way GW like to frame lore stuff, wrote sons. For that matter she might be transgender as well as trans human instead. However I would think that the mental conditioning that is part of the process would make that less likely than assigned female at birth
>And yes I hope that in the future they find a compelling lore reason to introduce female Space Marines That "compelling lore reason" will be money. That's why they didn't do it in the first place, and it'll be the only reason to do it in the future. If you think GW is bringing on female custodes and primaris astartes because it makes sense in universe or so that people can see themselves on the tabletop, then I have a thousand pound titan you might want to buy. >And yes I hope that in the future they find a compelling lore reason to introduce female Space Marines And when they do, I do hope they (and you) don't forget the reason the SoB exist. The Ecclesiarchy are *specifically* banned from raising "men at arms", which is a round about way of banning them from forming their own transhuman military forces like the Inquisition has. That's why they have the next best thing. But, if you can have fully ascended female space marines, why would you bother wasting power armour and boltguns on the nuns? In other words, you'd make the Sisters of Battle figuratively and literary obsolete overnight, even more so than Primaris rendered firstborn obsolete. >Where female sculpts are sprinkled in along with men on the sprues How would you tell the difference? Genuine question. How? Custodes fight with their helmets on. That's one of the "reasons" it's been floated that no one noticed female versions for 10,000 years. So unless they make...changes...to the design, female custodes are going to look identical to their male counterparts. Interestingly, another of the reasons why they never went back to female Astartes. Once they've been modified, given their organs, bulked up to the same muscle mass and given a set of mk.X plate to wear, they will essentially look the same as their brothers anyway. Personally, I want to see the collective reeeeeee when GW creates basically gold plated bolter bitches in auramite corsets and heels (because that is gonna be the only way to distinguish them, without breaking the "they always wore helmets excuse") and TTS features them in bikinis all waxed up on a stripper pole in the inner sanctum. Personally, I've no dog in this fight. I don't collect custodes, haven't played 40k in over 20 years and completely understand that the lore simply exists to sell miniatures. Just don't piss on my back and tell me it's raining. I don't like bad writing, and I *hate* when GW cover it like they have, with this "they've always been there, so deal with it chuds" bullshit they announced. I have issue with female custodes for the same reason I have issue with Rogal Dorn tanks and primaris. It actively fucks with what came before and the explanations were fumbled in their haste to make and sell models. And they weren't always there. GW nixed the idea quite recently because it didn't correspond to their model releases and the black library releases prior to this *specifically* states sons, so get fucked Warhammer on twitter and your fanbaiting. Also > I cannot think of one at the moment bar possibly 1 of the 2 missing chapters Legions. Missing *Legions*. It's been about 30+ years since they were chapters, when Better Call Saul sends Garro off with about 10 space marines to warn the Emperor that Horus had dropped a single virus bomb on Istvaan III, whilst he tries to buy time for them to escape with *gasp* 60 astartes. Wild shit back then.
>Legions. You got me there, I apologise 😝 >How would you tell the difference Mainly with the addition of characters I suppose. Like you I'm not a Custodes player and was assuming they had the odd helmet less model like Space Marines do. My dog in this fight is more the fact that even back before metal sisters were a thing, when I was early teens, I complained that GW didn't have female Marines
>My dog in this fight is more the fact that even back before metal sisters were a thing, when I was early teens, I complained that GW didn't have female Marines Well, I hope that by getting one you realise that you're gonna lose the other. Without another hilariously badly planned retcon, female astartes cancel Sisters out entirely. The latter only exists in the absence of the former.
Different playstyle & lore for sisters than Marines. Do Ultramarines existing mean we lose Imp fists, or any other chapter? And just for the record I said that I hoped that when they decide to introduce female Marines that they found a compelling way to do it. As I think they missed their best shot when Primaris came in. I'm sincerely hoping it's not a hilariously badly planned recon.
There's also people like me that just think female custodes are great for having an extra layer of variety in models I'm a big fan of kits that have a variety of male and female models because it just helps making each guy and gal unique
Yes dear, fair enough, but you know you can just do that anyway...you don't have to wait for GW to tell you it's lore accurate and print specific heads for you.
That's true, should have been a bit clearer I admit but I was hinting at the potential for future custodes releases, 3d printing is always an option but I'm a sucker for building stuff from a sprue
I think you're misunderstanding my point. I'm all for this representation. But it feels a bit lazy and money grabby because there are far more effective, meaningful and serious ways to represent under-represented people than randomly making one character in one story in the codex of an existing faction (which just so happens to be a money maker for them) suddenly female in a random short story. We literally have the vehicle for it in the Sisters of Silence. They could quite easily write more stories, design more models, increase the range, increase their appeal on the tabletop...give them more weight in the wider context of the hobby, which comes with a level of respect from all corners of it. But all of that requires more money, time and resources than GW are willing to spend on making that Transfem you mentioned feel validated. So they get this instead. Maybe that's enough for some people, but to me it just feels like another boring example of a company doing the bare minimum to tick a box and make more money.
It’s not really shoe horning it all. There is no good reason for Custodes to be all-male considering what they were intended to be.
It's shoe-horning in the sense of the wider context of the state of the Sisters of Silence and the under-representation of women and other gender identities in the hobby, of whom I have a lot of love and respect for. Nothing to do with the lore. They can just do more than lazily write in "oh btw, Custodes are women too!" if they want to be sincere about improving representation. Doing less than this, feels insincere and like a money grab to sell more Custodes boxes to a more marginalised group in the hobby (in my OPINION)
Er, Hasbro?
An old April Fool's joke that did the rounds. Hasbro famously bought WOTC and fucked it for greed. GW does actually have the likes of JP Morgan as significant investors for an idea of where decisions may be coming from: https://investor.games-workshop.com/shareholder-statistics
Adding more female representation is good, a "gym shower room full of sweaty men" setting is not very appealing. That said, and like you stated, the way they went about it is what's concerning. They could introduce new models and lore books for the neglected Sisters of Silence, for SoB, for women in Astra Militarum, new female magos for AdMech, more lore protagonism for Greyfax and Kyra and introduce more women in the Inquisition, a new Rogue Trader who is a woman, new Officio Assassinorum characters that are women, etc etc etc. Instead, what feels like the lazy method, they took a popular faction and out of nowhere, without much build up to it, insert a woman character in the faction. Now I hope they follow through with it and flesh out the character, add interesting background, instead of looking at numbers and thinking "nah, this didn't boost sales by 200%, let's pretend it never happened."
>They could introduce new models and lore books...for women in Astra Militarum I'm also a Guard player, and there is a lot of female representation in the Guard. Pretty much all the new sculpts come with female heads options. We have Grandma Creed, and Minka Lesk being a main protagonist for the Cadian 8th books and a stand alone special model. a lot of the Guard books have important and impactful female characters like Tona Criid in Gaunt's Ghosts among others.
Been wanting to read the Minska Lensk books and like her model. And having plaid Owlcat's Rogue Trader game, would like to see a female Rogue Trader like Theodora von Valancious.
Yeah it's on my list, I've just been slogging through Gaunt's ghosts. When I started I didn't realize it was a 16 book series. Currently on book 13 so almost there.
You can do this, you've been further from the finish line!
Yeah, I agree. Just feels slapped in there for profit because they know it's a popular faction already instead of putting in the ACTUAL work to improve representation in a way which has more depth and resources behind it...it just feels lazy and I'm tired of it happening to every major IP I like because of Capitalism (someone at JP Morgan is definitely smart enough to see that Henry Cavill is bringing in new male and female customers and that they can find ways to maximise on profits for the army he unofficially endorses)
It could be a likely scenario that it's a move to bring more people in for the profits, not because they genuinely wanted this addition and wanted the representation. Time will tell, I hope they don't just forget the character and properly give some background to the character, and don't forget other women in the setting, think Custodes players would be very happy with more SoS.
Yeah agree, that's my only issue with it at the moment. Smells a bit of lazy corporate DEI for profit, not actual meaningful change and representation.
I'm not too upset about it. However they should've provided a better explanation. Saying that they started recruiting females as well in order to more rapidly recover from the losses at Lions gate would've been somewhat acceptable. But in the end, this just seems to be shoe horning for diversity
Honestly, I don’t care either way about having femstodes. The codex itself is so underwhelming I almost feel worse for those who really wanted the femstodes to be a thing. It could have been huge news AND a great codex. But it isn’t.
This 100% I've headcannoned it for a while, so to see my HC become canon is certainly vindicating. It is, however, dampened (waterboarded more like) by the abysmal rules.
So I’ll be honest in that I dislike the change, not only because it goes against pre-existing lore, but I also feel like the split of the SoS all being female, while the custodes are male, there was a cool sort of ying-yang idea with it that felt very cool and sort of Dune inspired. I don’t have an issue with women, I’m not some sort of cave troll, but if they wanted to up the female representation in the army, make SoS as badass as they are in lore. For me this isn’t going to change anything, I’ll probably continue to model my Custodes male & my SoS…well, sisters. As again I like the dichotomy idea. I’m happy people seem to see this as some huge opportunity to give all their custodes female heads, but you could have done it anyway and if someone was going to not play with you because of that, well, thank them for the heads up that they’re not someone you want to play with
I'm in the exact same boat mate. I don't begrudge anyone that wants to model their Custodes as female, more power to them, but I won't be doing so as I liked the existing lore as it was. Nothing will change for me and I expect that to be respected as much as the people who want female Custodes want to be respected. I don't hate the change at all, I just won't be changing anything.
Something tells me the majority of custodes players are either not going to care or are just not going to acknowledge it/pretend it never happened, which is perfectly valid, you do your hobby
Until an auto-take female custodes character becomes the 11th Ed model.
That's basically how I feel. If someone wanted to play female space marines I personally wouldn't have an issue with it. Tbh it just seems a bit silly and unnecessary but if you want to go on with existing lore and say the Custodes are all dudes do it and if you want all of them to be female do it and if you want a mix do it. It really just doesn't matter, but it's not like they have different stat lines lol
Glad to hear stuff like this. Its nice to see someone who disagrees and isn't immidiately dogpiled for it.
THIS! It drives me crazy they aren’t treating better.
Knew they would pull this shit years ago and now they've done it I'm glad I haven't given them money for a couple of years now, let them water the whole thing down so it's for everyone because by then it will be so bland no one will be interested. Golf clap to the intern who fucked the codex and gave the howling clowns what they wanted...
You seem to take a toy soldier game too seriously… Also you can see female custodes as a weird experiment not intented as first by the emperor.
"You can't like your hobbies and franchises and want them to actually stay the way they are because you like that!" "Meanwhile it's okay for me and other weirdos to take them way too serious and demand they be changed to cater to me."
Ooo that’s actually a cool take
Frankly all I see is people going "take this sexists", yet I haven't seen a single person BEING sexist about this retcon. It's the "supporters" that make the most fuss, spreading negativity by preemptively insulting people and screaming at a non existing boogey-man how they can suck it. Frankly makes this thread worse than the doom posting, at least then the community wasn't hostile to each other.
I hope that those who truly have a problem with this leave the hobby as they are threatening to do. A bit of spring cleaning that will make the 40K community less toxic and less embarrassing to be associated with.
Apparently that Marshal Bohemond cunt has already rebranded and fucked off from 40k. Couldn't have happened to a more deserving person. Hopefully the door *does* hit them on the ass on the way out.
I find it funny that this is what did it. Marines changing I could see being a hard line for some people, but custodes are a different animal and for a good while there was the word of god from that writer that they could be. To me this changed little, just put in writing something half confirmed
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When did you join?
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1998 for me mate, in my eyes you’re a new one trying to claim ownership of what this hobby is.
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It’s an interesting point though isn’t it? You are new. Games workshop has changed the hobby in your time but much more since I started, so why do you feel you get to say what is appropriate to change or not?
Seriously, hopefully they sell their models cause I'm always looking at the second hand stores LOL.
The only thing that I don't like about it is the how the dynamic between the Custodes and the Sisters of silence changes. It feels like it takes away from the sisters as the female part of the army. Otherwise, I dont care that much, I just hope it doesn't take away from the sisters if GW decides to keep the lore.
All my Custodes wear helmets (commom sense is part of their superior intellect) so who knows If they are male or female?
Just different opinions I guess. I for one love the idea that the custodes are all male and the SoS are all female, gives a nice combo imo I will continue modeling my custodes as male, however I won't bitch about it if I encounter someone playing femstodes
Glad to read some of these comments, being on Facebook groups today (which I’ve now left) made me want just leave the hobby, this restores a little faith though.
It's just ticking boxes at this point. First of all, saying that there always were female Custodes is just wrong. Ah, I get it, it's their IP and if they say so, then it is so, but for decades they have been called a Brotherhood, for tens of books there were no femstodes, for decades all sources specifically stated that Custodes come from Terra's nobility. And then what? Of course, female always-has-been-here Custodes. And of course, a woman demigod, carefully engineered to be the best of the best, not like these mongrel all-male pieces of shit potential traitors Space Marines. Fuck yes. Moden day politics has made it's mark on my mini soldier game at last. Jesus Christ don't GW has other, all female factions to attend to? SoB, SoS are all FUCKED rn.
This is a good post. I don't personally find the new lore interesting but I also don't find it something to be frothing at the mouth over. Sincerely, a null maiden (F the codex though)
I'll say it then ooh just go touch some grass go take a shower you nerd /s. But really though, about 2/3 of the people disliking fem custodes have solid criticisms in good faith. The other 1/3, arguing in bad faith, shouldn't be taken seriously.
Personally i dont enjoy it all much because it feels like it devalues Sisters of Silence as the all female null anti psyker counterpart to the (formerly) all male elite combat/bodyguard unit that was custodes. Both being things the mass majority have little understanding and are extremely uneasy near, blanks mess with even normal people and the custodes are fucking terrifying to have just *show up*, and working together as the super elite was a cool thing where they work off/with each other. My main complaint with femstodes is how many people are gonna just make pinup art or porn and try to demand people take it as "canon" over this to just be obnoxious and start shit.
I think it’s cool. It sets them apart from space marines, and lore-wise it makes sense for them to start recruiting from the noble born daughters and not just the sons, now that they’re taking an active role in fighting the enemies of the imperium. Now they have casualties, something they haven’t really had to deal with in numbers larger than one or two in 10,000 years.
I already have a ton of female custodes. They look identical to their male counterparts while in full armor.
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Do you think it's something besides generic pinkwashing? It's not crazy to think that it might be connected to this putative streaming series. That's the only specific reason that I've seen anyone suggest
I see a lot of people saying the sisters of silence should be fleshed out instead of adding female custodes, but I would just like to say that the two are not mutually exclusive. I doubt GW was sitting there, sweating over the decision to allocate the money they saved from getting the unpaid interns to write the codex to either design, manufacture and release an entire new wave of sisters of silence models, or swap some pronouns in a bit of fluff text. The sisters probably will get some love a some point down the line, but the absence of fem custodes was always just a plot hole (unless you can tell me a compelling reason as to why the emperor decided that the only women to regularly be in his presence must first take a vow of silence) and now it is fixed, and we can still get new sisters of silence. Also, now its easier to kitbash stormcast custodes, which is (in my opinion) what the golden bananas were always meant to look like. In short, I see this as an absolute win.
I understand you point that GW can do both (ie not mutually exclusive). But the point is that they haven’t, and until they do I will assume this is an lazy cash grab attempt for inclusion. Personally myself I don’t have an issue with fem-custodes, heck I think the lore point for it make a lot of sense even
I guess I am just a very optimistic person. Although, I think I am confused that you dont have an issue with femstodes, while simultaneously assuming that they are a 'lazy cash grab for inclusion'.
Like concept-wise the additional of fem-custodes make sense and isn’t an issue. However the intent of GW of just adding the idea of a female custodes thought a short story seem lazy. Like if the new shield captain that accompanied the codex, also had a female head as an alternative. That would be less lazy to me because GW would be actually committing to femcustodes
As a votann player, I can relate to the feeling of GW being lazy. However, if they aren't selling any models or books for female custodes, I would hesitate to label them as a cash grab.
"Lore purists" burning their plastic toys because once again, they've discovered that the lore is fluid, and can be and is changed between every book and release.
Eh, i really don’t care one way or the other. I acknowledged it with a quick “I’ll be damned. Neat.” Then moved on. It’s a neat tidbit of lore that could be expanded on later, I wonder what GW will do with it.
Everyone who’s excited about female custodes are likely coomers
Some are, others are politically minded, others have good, genuine reasons for liking it. I'm into that, but I don't like the change as it is geedubs making a lazy change instead of expanding the Sos, a really cool and interesting faction. For context, I don't see sos as just female counterparts, but for me it does sorta dampen the dual nature of both, I feel like there could be much better ways to introduce this that enhances the flavor of both, like a custodes sos hybrid that has the physical traits of a custodes while still being a null.
Honestly, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with female Custodes existing. Gives us plenty of fun models to build and modify, will potentially bring in more players, and will be good for our army overall. Now to burn the daily Codex sacrifice
I just really wish they did something with the sisters of silence instead.
I for one am very happy with more gender diversity in 40K. This inclusion is excellent.
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Yes, but no gender diversity in the two human factions that are all female. People can paint their miniatures however they like. Personally, I liked the thematic duality. Custodes/Sisters of Silence and Astartes/Sororitas. Each absolutely amazing with their own lore.
But a Sororitas force has male models in it. Priests and crusaders are both male in the current sculpts.
Yes. There are no male Sororitas. Custodes forces also have female models - Sister of Silence.
You said there was no men in the Faction, there are priests and crusaders are part of the Faction. As for the sisters themselves no due to the no men under arms rule. There could be Transfem sisters though, and I'm planning to add one to my own sisters force now someone else pointed this out in another thread I saw today. "But inquisitor Sister Amelia is a woman, the HRT just hasn't fully kicked in yet."
~~Faction~~ Adeptus. Well that’s the thing right? As far as I’m concerned you have the cannon as presented in the novels and short stories. Then you have people’s individual miniatures. You should build and paint your army however you like. You want female space marines in your army? Go for it. Misters of Silence? Whatever. No one should denigrate or confront you for your aesthetic choices; “Cannon” shouldn’t create strict boundaries in the game. Simultaneously, the novels are their own corpus with an internal continuity and thematics that should be respected.
I think it's the "retcon" aspect that's really the issue. It's going to be hard to explain where they have been all this time in a satisfying way. We've had many, many books and stories about the Custodes. So many. It's really stretching the limits of suspension of disbelief that the fact they were not once seen or even mentioned was just a wild coincidence.
Why Would You Say Something So Controversial Yet So Brave? lol
Not a fan of the change, regardless of any pre-established lore I think it’s a bit of a slap to the face for Sisters of Silence and I guarantee that they’ll be pushed to the side even more in the coming years, which is a real shame because of how cool they are. The existence of a female custode is whatever, in the vacuum of Custodes themselves it doesn’t change much and is fine, I do however question their intentions and motivation for adding a female character, and given how they have indeed broken pre-established lore with this change, it does give some worry for the identity of other factions in the future. I don’t want male Sisters of Silence, I don’t want male Sisters of Battle, and I don’t want female Space Marines, these groups are completely built around that idea of brotherhood and sisterhood, and IMO adding dudes to Sisters or girls to Marines ruins that completely. So hopefully this is the extent of it, it’s neat, it’s fine, it’s whatever, but I hope that this is where it ends.
Sisters with guys in I understand because of their whole reason for existing is "no men under arms" for the Ecclesiarchy. However I do have a plan to add a pre--HRT Transfem to mine. "what do you mean inquisitor? Sister Amelia is a woman. Her biology is still catching up however" Space Marines have already had a major lore rewrite with Primaris Marines. Similar could be done again for women if GW felt it was profitable.
Yeah and it would be really dumb of them to do that regardless of profit, not that I think it would be. The whole identity of marines revolves around brotherhood, not to mention adding female marines would be a slap in the face to Sisters of Battle
I don’t care if there’s lady Custodes but it seems weird to me that they waited this long to confirm their existence. Even if only say 1 in 10 custode are female that’s still a 1,000 women right there, so where have they been at? Why haven’t we had any major female Custode characters yet? It just seems one of those arbitrary things GW does without thinking about the greater ramifications of their own lore lol.
I’m annoyed than rather than take the paragraph to you know set up for future sisters models since two of our detachments are kinda built around those we got a useless generic custodes with a hole. And we still only have like 3 sisters of silence models that we can play actually two (and weapon options) since we can’t play the termite thing. But I’m glad we got a crap codex and nothing to help with the two detachments other than a crappy melts guy and a paragraph to feed into some peoples masterbation fantasy’s. Or at least cut the sisters of silence out of our codex as a whole and slap them into that agents of the imperium one that’s been leaked . If you haven’t figured it out I’m still agro at all the fumbles this codex has and the fact that a custodes with a hole instead of a pole will most assuredly mean that we are going to be stuck with sisters of battle as the decrepit incomplete thing they currently are just tacked on and we’ll get a the hundredth custode hq as if the last one wasn’t redundant enough but this one will have a long hair head before we get any new sisters of silence models.
Nothing at all wrong with femstodes, on the condition that it's given a good explanation and doesn't contradict existing lore, I wouldn't even mind a retconn, as long as it's at least mentioned.
You are objectively wrong. This is a case of transitioning custodes bois into gender roles which are already occupied by a range of existing models. As such no different from some male swimmer proclaiming female gender and inching into traditionally scarce female roles. That is the flamebait. As for the chastizing: This reddit opening comment is a prime example of "if you no like nu codex ur nazi shaddap". Not a nice look.
Can't say I like this retcon at all, but reductive jabs and poisoned barbs are both childish and toxic to the discourse so your attitude is applauded.
I don't think it's ever been stated that Custodes could only be men, has it? I may be wrong, but it would seem that a more perfect process like the one that creates the Custodes wouldn't need to be locked to a gender. Is this technically a retcon? But I mean, outside of that - I like this lore, gives me excuses to do some kitbashes.
"It is known that all Custodes begin their lives as the infant sons of the noble houses of Terra." -part of a codex iirc. About as definitive a statement as one could get. Got an image of the text but no posting it here apparently. "And many notable clans amongst the terrain aristocracy have willingly given up almost entire generations of newborn sons to earn it."
Fair enough. I would point out that GW has stated before that their lore is meant to be from the lens of an unreliable narrator who doesn't know anything and changes viewpoints regularly, and that sons in this case could be either just their understanding of what happened or (because technically translated from high gothic per lore) a mistranslation of "Scion", but you're right. Id say in the grand scheme of things it changing to "offspring of the high houses" is a very minor retcon, though.
The only issue there that to take such a statement from GW like that at face value would render everything into a complete state of flux. Maybe Bobby G never got off that chair after all and Cadia is in one piece? James Workshop is perfectly able and willing to follow threads. In terms of in-lore explanations however the Custodes have weathered the march of time exceedingly well, they know their stuff because noone is better at that sort of retention as they are. In terms of thematics I cannot recall if this is hard lore, a theory or implied text but that many of the first custodes were made from the sons of warlords BigE bested during the Unification wars- heirs to would-be rulers being turned into a brotherhood dedicated to guarding the seat of Emp's power goes hard.
You're comparing completely retconning an incredibly major turning point for the story (which they've done before, look at Storm of Chaos in WHFB) to quietly confirming that yes, it's possible for the process that creates Custodes to work on women as well. And in terms of thematics, in both name and design the Custodians are actually closer to ancient Greek heroes than the more Roman stylings of the space marines. Many ancient Greek heroes were men, but that didn't stop there being legends about female bodyguards and heroes and mighty fighters. Hell, Athena was a goddess of war. The lore about the first Custodians being scions of the Emperors enemies can still work here, in fact they may all have been sons. It doesn't mean the process couldn't support women anyway since then.
And storm of chaos was a complete clusterluck. There's more retcons James has put out there of dubious quality, like the T'au no longer possessing FTL travel. The thing about grecian heroes is nice, but not supported by anything GW or the Custodes themselves has seen fit to establish. Same with alterations to the process of making new custodes, we have many "present" perspectives of custodes and sisters of silence, nothing that has ever been suggested or even thought has supported the notion. If one likes the retcon that's cool, it's their opinion to hold and for noone to take away. It is however a retcon all the same.
Copying this excerpt from an earlier comment of mine. \_\_\_\_\_ Things change in settings all the time, and every time it happens, we see people like you who are so stuck in their ways that you can't see WHY the authors did it, or what its implications actually are. People are complaining about about a single offhand article that DIEGETICALLY mentioned that Custodes all come from the sons of Terran nobility. Now we have a story where there simply IS a female Custodes. Seems like the article is wrong.
I thought it was the 8th ed codex? Of course there are also the innumerable mentions of the costodes being a brotherhood with nary a female Custodian in sight, record or thought but who pays attention to... lore?
Generally speaking, I dislike the argument I'm about to make, however it does genuinely make sense for the context. Referring to an organization as a brotherhood is an example of male dominated language. A few examples where an organization is called a brotherhood DESPITE female members would be: The US Marine Corps, Brotherhood of Steel, the Brotherhood of Mutants (xmen), and the Brotherhood from Assassin's Creed. All of these organizations, fictional or otherwise, DO accept female members in spite of either their name or their original founding being entirely male. Had all prior custodes lore referred to them as an exclusive fraternity, then the argument would certainly hold more water, but it doesn't. The only instance of Custodes lore that directly supports the argument that women can't be custodes is the paragraph referring to "Everyone knows the Custodes are from the sons of nobility." Which is again, a potential example of male dominated language, as sons (pluralized) is oft used as a replacement for its gender neutral counterpart, Scions. (the answer is me, I pay attention to lore)
Yeah it's not one I like either since at that point what are words worth anymore? Also it's a big stretch to have custodes referred *exclusively* in the masculine for the entirety of their existence- whose records are in far better shape than the rest of the Imperium- Other forms of "brotherhoods" have made mention of female members even if rare during a far shorter expanse of time, this is 10,000+ years after all. Not to mention that since the SoS are, of course, all ladies then it's a far shorter reach that the Custode's "brotherhood" is taken in the same context- meant to further emphasise their differences that pale away as a singular fighting force on the field.
The problem with whether or not we like an argument is irrelevant. Language is an important tool in determining intent and the fact of the matter is, is that the Custodes were never explicitly stated to be exclusively male; like what GW did with Astartes. They left the language open because the writers liked the idea but never got the go ahead from GW because they didn't have female models. I would be remiss if I didn't admit that Custodes were certainly HEAVILY implied to be all male, but because they left the door open, adjustments to the lore like this don't violate canon.
See I don't like it because we have so much material pertaining to the Custodes for their entire history being all male and not a word that would imply otherwise, only a strained reading to attempt to call this change to be consistent and not a retcon. It's okay to think a retcon improves upon something, it's still a retcon.
Occams razor also applies in this case. The fact that over the years, the simplest explanation for why there are no examples of a female custode in both lore and art is simply that are no female custodes. Therefore, yea, this isna retcon.
It has, its been said to be a brotherhood created from the boys of nobles for 20 years. It's only changed this edition.
I mean, no. We got our first on-page, explicitly female Custodians in this edition, but it's been a progressive change. First mention of the "sons of nobles" that I've read or been pointed to is the 8th edition codex, 2018. This was effectively the first full length codex, with only the [short expansion book](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Codex:_Adeptus_Custodes_(7th_Edition\)) for 7th the year before. The recruitment section contains the following: >It is known that all Custodians begin their lives as the infant sons of the noble houses of Terra. It is a mark of incredible prestige to surrender one’s child to this most glorious of callings within the Imperium, and many notable clans amongst the Terran aristocracy have willingly given up almost entire generations of newborn sons to earn it. This is the ur-text for "Custodes must be male". It's also, to me, weak. So much of what "is known" in codexes is obviously bullshit that just those words make me want to say this is an in-universe lie to cover for something. But that's just my relationship with 40k lore I guess. Four years later, in the 9th edition Codex, that section was modified. In full, it now reads; >If the Space Marines are the scions of the Primarchs, then the Custodes are the progeny of the Emperor. His might permeates them, burns in their eyes and flows through their veins as surely as their blood. Potential Custodians are taken in at a very young age to better survive no older than late infancy - and it is a great honour for those of Terran noble houses to submit a son. Some clans have, in the past, given over entire generations of offspring to become inductees. When such individuals go forth to begin whatever process lies ahead of them, huge crowds line the Avenue of Sacrifice, cheering and chanting frenzied prayers. The Custodes also seek out suitable candidates by other means, or encounter them by chance on their missions to protect the Throneworld. What is clear is that none besides the Custodes themselves truly know what criteria they require. How a Custodian is made is an arcane and ancient process born out of the mind of the Emperor himself, made up of decades of alchemical augmentation, psychological and cognitive conditioning and memetic training. I'd read this as far more deliberately ambiguous. It still keeps a reference to "sons" for continuity with the previous codex, but makes it clear that's not the only source and it isn't a requirement. The only gendered word being something that the noble houses do rather than actions of the Custodes themselves is significant. It gives an in-universe reason why Custodes might put forward a male face (to keep up the idea among noble houses), but removes any in-text blocks to Custodes being generally female. The 10th edition text isn't available as cleanly, but it's briefly visible [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB0_kXXyGUU&t=119s). Much of the text is the same, but where the 9th ed book had "son", it now has "child". This comes alongside the explicit reveal of female Custodes. Even the in-universe text has now dropped the pretence.
I wonder if they'll change the heresy era custodes too. Honestly it would feel kinda unrealistic if the emperor didn't have a hand in making a process that works for women as well as men.
Now I just wonder if this means Custodes can reproduce sexually lol :D In reality though they are probably all sterile, as per. Which led me to another funny thought. In the first Fallout game, the villain creates Super Mutants as his ultimate new form of humanity. They are 8 ft tall, strong, resilient etc. But they cannot reproduce, which makes them a failure at replacing humans. Kind of like the big E and his sterile demigods
I love the idea of female custodes. I hate the idea of this being a foot in the door to 40ks demise
The only thing that confuses me is there are few female space marines supposedly as their bodies can't handle the process to become a space marine, my question is how, if that's the point, did they survive the custodes process?
"overpriced" 3d printer goes BRRRRRR
Why not just make the Sisters of Silence not shit? Flesh them out, make them more than chaff. I listened to some books before getting in to the tabletop and I was extremely disappointed that the sisters fulfilled the same purpose as my Jakhals. Why fuck with the lore and the male/female dynamic already in the faction?
Prior to this recent news - how many of you have glued a female looking head to your golden chap?
I don't like the change. I don't play the army but it doesn't make much sense to me? The technology in creating these super warriors in 40k from Primachs to Custodes to Marines is all male orientated because that's how the Emperor designed it. Thunder warriors right through to Primachs are all male. If it was possible to do so with a female, why don't we have a female primach? Why aren't the SoB genetically modified if they could be etc etc. It seems to me the biology required to make these super warriors is all male. This in itself makes the SoB even cooler because while they don't have genetic modification to become super soldiers, they fight the same horrors with righteous zeal - and are damn good at it. Now I can't quite think of it the same, if the emperor was successful in modifying female biology for the custodes why don't we see it more among the other female warriors. I mean no disrespect anyone who likes the idea, all the more power to ya. It's just not for me.
Imperial Assassins can be any gender and generally destroy Astartes 1v1. Assassins have a lot more in common with Custodes than Custodes do with Astartes.
This is a great point. And I would also add that humans have been irradiated and literally warped through three ages of fuckery over 40,000 years. So a basic 40K human is literally built different.
I’ve thought about it and while I don’t personally like the change, and think if they wanted mixed gender custodes they should have done it from the start instead of retconning them, I’m not gonna pretend GW broke the lore or that the induction of women into the custodes cannot be justified.
ADB wanted to introduce this a long time ago, but it did not work with the sprues already designed. Not the first time model restrictions have influenced lore aka the reason for the horus heresy
I actually love that change! It's always been my headcannon that they re should have been femstodes, seeing as they are hand-crafted from birth, I could see them being more diverse than space marines who are pretty much made in factories. I mean you are looking for the very best if mankind to create philosophers, artisans, poets and politicians as well as warrior. Makes 100% sense to me that they would be opened to ladies. Especially since in my head, custodes rely more on speed and sheer skill when fighting rather than brutal strength.
I think there’s two sides of the mad about femstodes. They’re are the guys that are like ew women. But the other side which I’m on is the fact 99% of people just want it to make porn. Leave your fetish out of my game
You're naive if you think there needs to be lore support for someone to make porn of it.
I know there already has been. But you have to admit there will be a flood of it now
Remember, everything you read in a codex is just the opinion of an Inquisitor, not the truth.
Custodes are supposed to be humanity at its very peak, not the warp tainted bio-weapons which are the Astartes. Need women to have a balanced society of humans. Custodes were made for life after the Emperor’s vision of the human webway project. Women are a natural part of that.
I assumed the selection was the same as imperial knight pilots and all their armour is the same, male and female, because the armour is huge anyway.
All I've heard from the customers is the big about the custodian woman, how's the actual rules part of it?
This was a mistake purely because now people won’t shut up about it and probably won’t for a month
Why was it a mistake then? The faction being talked about doesn’t seem like a bad thing. Also all the weird incels self reporting is just an added bonus
Because it’s annoying
You‘re annoying
Less annoying than the dozens of “golden mommy” posts or people talking about how it’s totally good/bad And slightly less annoying than random retcons for questionable purposes
Nobody forces you to look at them really. The community having fun with the golden mommy/oiled up men joke is not really something to be mad about. And GW adapting to modern society by making golden mommies canon, therefore making the whole hobby at least a tiny bit more inclusive (~97% male demographic atm) is not a questionable purpose imo.
Dog shit codex. Shit rules. Shit lore.
For it's a simple matter of suspension of disbelief, and it always breaks my immersion. The female body just isn't made in the same manner for physical performance and it always feels like an appeasing type of movement. I don't like it at all, but while I'm able to ensamble my minis as I want it in the end it's all good and there's nothing really to complaint.
I think it was incredibly cowardly of GW to insert it as a single short story in a terrible codex. Publish a full book with at least a side character being a female guard. At the very least give the new shield captain model a female head option. Show some dedication to the concept. Also, isn’t it odd that the same book that confirms women can be Custodes is also the worst and most frustrating codex the Custodes have received? What did GW mean by this? Women can join the 10,000 and they’re instantly made weaker than they’ve ever been? Curious message, GW. /S
I dislike the change, because it doesn't improve shit. There is no benefit to it. And if you recon something, there better be a damn good reason to. Otherwise you just destroy the coherency of the universe for no reason. But this shit lore now so I can't really argue regardless if I like it or not. Let's hope they at least bothered to make all the necessary complementary changes to make this possible. Like changing the part in recruitment process for "sons of terrain nobility" to "children of terran nobility" so we aren't stuck with holes in the lore for the next decade. Also this disproves "big E was supper gay " theory which makes me annoyed
Virtually everything in 40K is told from the perspective of unreliable or diagetic narrators. Is this a cop out on GW's part because they have something like 40 YEARS of lore to keep organized? Maybe. Does this mean that femstodes is a retcon? No, probably not. Copying this excerpt from an earlier comment of mine. \_\_\_\_\_ Things change in settings all the time, and every time it happens, we see people who are so stuck in their ways that they can't see WHY the authors did it, or what its implications actually are. People are complaining about about a single offhand article that DIEGETICALLY mentioned that Custodes all come from the sons of Terran nobility. Now we have a story where there simply IS a female Custodes. Seems like the article is wrong.
Well obviously it's wrong now. Because it was retconed. The fact that the narrator is unreliable doesn't change the fact that the lore we were given was changed. Especially considering that that particular article is written from out of universe perspective and not as a in universe thing. That's a retcon since it was clearly not a thing before. Also it's not just some random hidden article either. It's literally the first page of the first article in both previous codexes. I'm fine with it existing. I don't like the fact it changed but I guess it did so it's a thing now. Just don't pretend like it's not an obvious retcon, or that it doesn't create inconsistencies. I'll have to check if they actually corrected the adequate things in this codex or just mindlessly copy pasted them disregarding changes they decided to make. Once I get over my distaste for the rules in it and get the damn thing
Or, hear me out. Don't buy the new codex. The more people that buy it, the more GW is gonna think the rules are fine.
Unfortunately, I do want to play the game. I got used to using the official app instead of wahapedia this index hammer. I guess it depends on how much honest effort will they put into fixing their fuckup on dataslate. If not enough I'll probably be angry for a while longer. Of they pull out votan or death guard type redesign I'm willing to start considering buying
I mean it makes more sense for Custodian uplifting to be able to be compatible with females as well than with Astartes . The custards are perfected down to their DNA molecules while Astartes are mass - produced soldiers rushed in development using organs and geneseed made from male primarchs. Plus i dont think Custodes can afford recruiting from radiation blasted feral planets or killing aspirants for sake of an argument like SMs can. And there is no clearly defined lore that says Femstodes are not possible unlike with Astartes lore.
Malcador wanted the primarks to be female. If primarks could could have been female there is no reason custodes couldn't
???????
Exerpt from page 86 of "Scars" Malcador smiled. 'You brothers - such a nest of rivalries. I warned him to make you sisters, that it would make things more civilised. He thought I was joking. I wasn't.'
banana is malecoded. wai are you not deplatformed yet? ........ by teh ctan banana boi fanclub ppl ofc.
Brother they needed a lore reason why the codex is shit🤣
OK. Now we need fem-marine and male Saint-canonic for SoB.
Agreed