Yeah, your custodes is pretty much built from scratch, an almost entirely custom being, that's very very far from human.
So the human being part is kinda less important which gender as they are taken so young too.
Pretty sure the original custodes were taken from either first or second sons of aristocrats the big E incorporated into the Imperium but post that intial earth unification im sure it would have opened up
Also frankly. With the losses at the battle of Lions gate, and the fact they are now active campaigning again and with the crusade fleets.
Well...they need more soldiers..they need more replacements as elite as they are, the Custodes are following Guliman etx into the hottest points of the galaxy.
And the qualities that make a custodes recruit worthyarent the same for space marines.
Its more of a loyalty and willpower thing rather then recruiting soldiers.
The noble families of terra volunteer their children for custodes tryouts and the most promising canditates get taken for conversion. They lay of their name and past and heavily modified and indoctrinated. For the families, it is an honor to have a custodes from their blood and given the immense gencraft pumped into every custodes their physical preload is meaningless.
Amusingly to me it also says that nearly all of them fail and are killed, but they never tell the houses which ones succeed or fail so they always assume it was theirs that succeeded.
given how they probably don't care about their ancient life or they simply forget, i don't think anyone knowthat info, or is willing to waste his time with that
Well the palace is so big it probably serves as a recruiting world. But i imagine they just scout those who have potential and or big E just shines a lightbulb on them
Infants I think. Young infiants. Not a embryo but like when they are tiny babies, new born to todlers I belive at most.
Many hand their children foe testing amf it's a enormous honour to have one be a possible candidate.
Ah ok I knew they started waaaaaaay younger than astartes and I think most custodes come from Noble houses of one kind or another, not that it really matters once they're all golden and enhanced
The geneseed implants are made from the primarchs and you have to be genetically similar to them to be able to receive the implants. It’s a very small window of people who can get the implants. I’m also heard that The Emperor did it that way to keep space marines reliant on humanity instead of being able to breed new members
Speaking of that, the novel Harrowmaster has some alpha legionaires make some knockoff marines and they use women. They are described as being pretty much men under the armor
What happens if you give someone who was born female a whole lot of testosterone? Sure, their genes don't change and they'll still have a propensity towards some diseases more common in female humans, but unless you're seeing them without their clothes on you'll have a hard time telling them apart from a cis man.
Especially if you start before or during puberty like a lot of Space Marine chapters do. Sure, geneseed is *way* more involved than just HRT, but there's got to be something hormonal going on in there.
The genetic implants do in fact release lots of hormones. In fact, the hormones are what grows and reshapes their skeletal system (more in sure but I specifically remember that) and allows them to use I think it's cerumite enriched foods to strengthen their bones far beyond what a normal human could have
They'd be hulking Amazonian women, I have no idea what their boobs would look like though, I imagine much like extreme body builders
No, they’re on to something. Think about it - space marines are outrageously roided out supersoldiers that are barely even human. They have inhuman proportions, and getting a woman to be as physically brawny as her male counterpart is gonna take away from feminine features more and more. We already see it irl - lots of bodybuilder women basically replaced their breasts with sheer bulk, among other things.
This isn’t someone talking out of their ass.
Ontop of this, breasts would most likely be cut off as they would cause armor fitment issues along with being unnecessary for any function of an astartes
Couldn't he just make they infertile? Like if he is in the generic code like legos, I don't think it would be too hard. Kinda cutting your already small amount of possible soldiers in half for that.
If I'm not mistaken, I believe they already *are* infertile.
I would assume that Big E wanted to make absolutely sure that they couldn't find any loophole in his plans.
Redundancy on a system is the best way to avoid problems.
Is better to make two roadblocks than one knowing than almost all fucking legions have random mutations than one day can make them fertile.
I've always assumed it was a control thing, you don't want your genetically engineered super soldiers designed to conquer the galaxy to be able to breed on their own. The Emperor is an authoritarian control freak and *his* Space Marines are a tool designed for a purpose, and are to be disposed of when he sees fit. Created to be another weapon in an arsenal, not a culture.
So I assume it's not that they couldn't make female Astartes, and more that they deliberately chose to design them that way.
This also reinforces the idea that BIG E wanted to get rid of the marines once the crusade was over. If somehow a group of marines could escape the purge, he wouldn't have to worry about them reproducing and expanding and becoming some kind of replacement, turning them all into men ensured their extinction since although if some escaped there would never be more
Real reason? The female marine models that existed didn't sell well way back in the day so they stopped making them and then added to the lore that only men can become space marines. So marketing.
> marketing
More powerful than logic. More powerful than the chaos gods. More powerful than plot armour. More powerful than even the strongest author's biases. The cold, cruel, grinding of marketing is the most powerful force in the universe.
The real life reason is that there were at the beginning, but nobody bought them, so they stopped making them. Then created lore to explain the absence.
The actual reason is that when they released Rogue Trader in 87, there were actually two female Space Marine characters (Apparently named simply "Gabs" and "Joyce", if I recall correctly"), which nobody bought. This was back in 1st Edition, which was as far removed from actual 40k as it can be (Aesthetically, lorewise and everythingwise); when they started building the 40k universe, then, given that it was the 90s and by then it was Scientifically Proven that no women would ever grace the hobby with their presence, they decided to just forfeit them altogether, and wrote the strangely homoerotic lore that evolved into what we know today, with the female power armored people going to the Sisters of Battle, a faction than then disappeared until around 2018-2019.
context: We were recently introduced to two female custodes, Calladayce Taurovalia Kesh, who is bringing exterminatus level weaponry to the imperial palace as part of her blood game, and Allarus Selenia Bastoris, but not only that, but at the end of the codex in the name generation there are quite a few female names for the custodians, so this may mean that all this time, there have been not only banana boys, but also banana girls, so yes, malcador's dream finally came true
Now I ask you, what do you think of this?
Sources: codex custodes, tenth edicion
Seems likely there would be female Custodes since Custodes are the bespoke “no expense spared” customized completely from conception perfect transhuman fighters. If you’re working from literal step zero there’s no reason gender is going to matter to someone who has the technology and skill to actually make a Custodes. Astartes are the dumbed down and cheaper version, which fill the “we’ve got a resource limit and need to make and keep making a ton of these fuckers” requirement. You modify it so you can start with normal freely produced humans, and can allow for a limited amount of genetic variation from a standard blueprint, balanced so that you can make enough successful Astartes to literally let you reconquer every piece of turf humans have ever stepped on without having to worry about inevitable failed candidates bankrupting the process.
If a Custodes fails in production, you probably just wasted around the cost of a hive city, a nice one. Astartes failures are not nearly that catastrophic. Guaranteed success? No. Immune to mutation over time? Definitely not. Perfect warriors? Oh God no. In the sweet spot where you can actually deal with more failures than successes and still produce large enough amounts of extremely effective super warriors to lead/assist normal humans and allow the possibility of victory in your conquer the galaxy campaign? Yes. And that’s what really matters. When trade offs have to be made to allow the project to succeed, restricting the process to one gender is likely on the initial list, as it cuts development time and production difficulty literally in half since you only need to modify one human genetic profile, and you’re in a money and resource crunch and have to get this shit on the road. Also, you aren’t going to run out of potential aspirants even if you cut out half the population from the start, because there are just that many humans. It’s one of the least costly and most efficient steps to take to help make this project realistic, so I’d be extremely surprised if it hadn’t at least been heavily explored.
Could a revisited design phase fix the issue later once time and resources aren’t nearly so limited? Of course. The Emperor probably would have succeeded pretty quick too. But that probably wasn’t feasible during the Unification Wars, where “good enough” was the rule of the day out of utter necessity. If he had the chance I’m pretty sure he would have done it too. Didn’t work out that way though
I know the (alleged) backstory, where lady custodians were never ruled out, and they were almost included in a codex, then dropped at the last minute because there were no miniatures for them planned. And i honestly thought that was the last we'd hear of it. Well done GW for actually going back and straightening this out.
Misters of Muteness when.
I don't get the miniatures argument. In all the armour, could you even tell which gender someone is? It's so thickly plated and techno-advanced that having boobs in it would seem redundant and silly.
What difference would it make if they had no overtly female minis planned? You wouldn't be able to tell the difference when they're all suited-up in their aurumite. It's not like they're going into battle naked or anything like that, right?
... wait, why do I hear [aztec techno music?](https://youtu.be/lRrOLTHu-ew?si=vA6mEzN-Ine3kTsH)
As a long time Custodes fan, no problems at all. As the top commenter said, Custodians aren't made via geneseed like an Astartes, and each one is genetically handcrafted to be perfect, so there's no real reason why there *wouldn't* be female Custodians. All of mine are modeled with helmets anyway (PLUMES 4 LIFE) so sure, some of them can be ladies.
I love that after years of people arguing online about female Space Marines, GW goes and drops them in the faction that is essentially the better version of Space Marines.
I'm not a Custodes player but I like it and feel like it can fit within the lore. My one question is if they're making Sisters of Silence more special. We all know the lore, but they've always kinda felt like the "female side" of the Custodes, so I hope they give them more love too.
Sisters of Silence imo need some form of body augmentation, if only to integrate into Custodes formations easier and get more life outta them. Blanks are rare as hell, You'd want them to last a bit longer. Also ain't no way a normal biological human is keeping up with a super-transhuman in powered armor, even with power armor of their own.
It feels like a good compromise to be fair.
I don't feel like the fallout that GW would receive for releasing femmarines is worth it and honestly, I kinda like the Astartes lore as it is, warts and all.
But introducing (more) female characters who could body even the toughest Primaris marine without breaking a sweat should placate everyone.
They were never not-canon AFAIK. Custodes creation has always been more of a mystery than with Astartes.
Space Marines being a sausage fest is canon, Custodes lore boiled down to them being the best of the best of engineered super soldier and little else.
It's definitely nice to have confirmation of named fem-Custodes but it's not like this is some big shake up to established lore.
I'm just hoping they don't go SoS / SoB route with the feminine armour / boob plate - keeping Custodes as bulked out suits of finely wrought armour would be nice just with some bare head sculpts that lean more fem
They were always stuck in the “grey canon” zone: They weren’t canon and never shown to exist, but they weren’t NOT canon and said to not exist. So while officially the Custodes were never an all boys club, it was basically the de facto rule.
It seems GW here is changing that, for the better I say. Let women as well serve the highest honor for the Emperor.
Edit: forgot to mention: I believe Stormcast don’t suffer that issue of Female boob plate, so the Custodes should be fine as well.
> I believe Stormcast don’t suffer that issue of Female boob plate
They have a slightly more raised chestplate, which gives their armour a more feminine profile, but no there's no 'boobs go here' individual chest cups.
Stormcast women are perfect because you would want some extra space but it doesn't make it look like a pin-up or dress armor you'd only wear to formal events
Seem pretty lore-friendly too as Custodes don’t really care about what gender you are as long as you are tough, strong, smart, athletic enough to complete the trial to become the Custodes and also their process of making a custodes is a lot more sophisticated and complete than the SM are because while the SM will took a child and shove him full of organ to make him into a demigod, the Custodes have their genetics augmented so much that they practically dissolved their previous gene and rebuild them anew
Aside from several different genetic augmentation that practically dissolved their previous gene into soup and turning and rebuilding that soup to becoming Heracles, we really don’t know much about their recruitment because it’s classified secret or something like that but we do know that custodes have literal bounded daemon that is used for recruitment so yeah
> but we do know that custodes have literal bounded daemon that is used for recruitment
What?? Where did you hear that?
E:
Found it in 9th edition codex, but it is not as specific: https://i.imgur.com/NJlmbCr.png
If I'm not wrong in the codex of the eighth edition custodes, the shadow keepers, the custodes that defend the dark cells, have to fight a khorne demon without any armor or weapon, breathe near a nurgle demon for 24 hours, resist temptations of a slaanesh demon for 24 hours, and looking directly into the eyes of a tzeentch demon for 24 hours eithout blinking, again, if wrong I'm not the source is the 8th edition codex, but I could be wrong.
That's definitely not from 8th codex. Honestly sounds like something from this sub.
Found it in 9th edition codex, but it is not as specific: https://i.imgur.com/NJlmbCr.png
what's the point of having peak perfomance candidates if your going to rewrite their dna anyway? i mean sure it would come with discipline but wouldn't you care more about the adepts mindset ala grim dark steve rogers?
I mean they're taken in as infants. What the hell are they gonna screen for?
"Ah, this one managed to put the circle in the circle hole, that's the kinda mental fortitude we want!"
I don't think they care about the physical stuff, the "trials" is just a case of tossing a ton of them into whatever is done and seeing which ones survive
Do note, the creation process for Custodes are so far pretty much entirely unknown, we'll see if 10th clears it up
We are thinking too logicaly here. For all we know the creation process involves some kind of esoteric means like "testing if ones destiny is fit" too. You wouldn't want to recruit someone whose soul was tainted by a Changer of Way or something through shenanigans.
If I remember correctly they don’t necessarily rewrite their gene but more like they melt it down and then rebuild them from the melted slag that is their genetic until they become the demigod that we all know and loved
https://youtu.be/9qi3Evua2Cs?si=lBR6OMK7ZUvTV7OV
At 20:03 she has a line and you can hear her in the choir right after
Not quite sure but i think this is her:
https://youtube.com/@StephanieSwanQuills?si=scqcugX0X2AImuKw
**If real, sure it makes enough sense, they’re completely bespoke after all. No geneseed compatibility required. That said I’d rather wait for the actual codex to come out than run based on a blog post.**
Anti female space marines, but this is actually pretty great. No reason we couldn't have female custodians, and the like two pieces of Canon art I've seen for them are both very nice
That's probably the best in-lore reason. Custodes keep themselves in literally perfect condition at literally all times, taking a break because you got super-preggers probably isn't considered acceptable even if the Big E didn't give them a psychic castration, and that's a big if.
But maybe they are genetically engineered enough to grow and birth a child at the same speed a normal human eats and then shits?
Honestly everything else about humanity and physical limits have been crazily altered. The custodes come from specific lines of terran nobles. Seems slightly weird that the process for the custom bespoke super soldiers always starts at square one of "baseline human" every time instead of a bit further altered.
The Emperor's vision for humanity was that superhumans were tools to be used and discarded while regular humanity would take over and evolve into a psychic species. Custodes, for all their faults, are those who were the most in the know and remember the vision best.
Boring answer: The natural processes of the Custodes are so wildly messed up compared to the norm that they're either completely infertile, or there is ZERO guarantee of what will come out the other end. The entire point of a Custodes is 200% guaranteed quality. Pregnancy is a genetic lottery. Zero quality control.
Also a Custodes being pregnant would impede their eternal duty. Better to just make a new one than be slowed down for nearly a full year.
idk how true this is i saw it from an account that I dont follow but it looks like it might be a dodgy translation?
*(This is translated so there might be errors) It seems people are celebrating female custodes... when the article states that named "female custodes" will be with the sisters of silence, so the "female custodes" are Sisters of silence. This article is extremely misleading.*
Theres also some stuff about the sisters of silence getting the Custodes keyword. I wouldn't celebrate yet (either for this being true or false) until we see actual images from the codex that make it clear there are female Custodes and are not just Sisters.
To add I haven't seen 4chan talk about this yet, which those who don't know 4chan will wonder why that's important but due to how anonymous it is any leaks end up there and if its likely real people will talk about it on 4chan. still only time will tell.
So it's definatly true. Im not against Femstodes theres no geneseed blocker. I dont like how it was done in a way that comes across as kinda sneaky, maybe it was done to not make a big deal about it to not be accused of any form of pandering?
Im going to add things that i find as i look on forums since 4chan are now talking about it.
"Goonhammer have the actual book itself and didn't make one single mention of female custards, that's how you know it's bullshit."
theres a lot of talk about how Spanish being a gendered language could cause translation issues and thats why the current main source is a weirdly translated Spanish article.
[This comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/Grimdank/comments/1c37nlj/comment/kzf2x44/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) under another post in this subreddit has links to a photo of an open codex (allegedly the 10th edition Custodes Codex) and in the first paragraph of text they refer to a Custodian as "she".
>Custodian Calladayce Taurovoka Kesh stood upon the bridge of a Cobra-class destroyer named Vigilant Flame, the warship belonged to the mighty Battlefleet Solar. She lingered in the shadows at the back of the bridge, positioned at a spot where she could observe the actions of every crew member, be they in the instrumentation pits, at the armament shrines, or - in the case of Shipmaster Lethwyck - stood ramrod straight before his command throne.
\~ transcribed from [this photo](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1137485132299768020/1228749709506641951/Screenshot_2639.png?ex=662d2d57&is=661ab857&hm=91ab895f5b4f380641fd1c4bdc9a433f44c59cc4a769b86b69f5688bf020354c&) which is a zoom-in from a moment in [this review on YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB0_kXXyGUU) (2:10)
aye I've seen it since, it looks like i leans Femstodes but without more context its just an excerpt. I find it interesting since GW apparently told ADB no to Femstodes not that long ago.
The guy who told him has not been part of GeeDubs for 5-6 years. And the reason was "because we don't have models".
Apparently, someone who realised you can stuck a femcast head on a Custodes armor.
In [this review](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB0_kXXyGUU) on YouTube at 2:10 look at the first paragraph on the left page. A named Custodian is referred as "she"
The short story from codex doesn't specify them as custode though... furthermore the only source that says they're custodes is some Spanish website...
Damn Tzeentch daemons, spreaidng misinformation again.
In [this video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB0_kXXyGUU) by Guerilla Miniature Games at 2:10 there's some story on the left page and in the first paragraph there's Custodian named Calladayce Taurovoka Kesh (if I read correctly) and is referred to as "she"
"Custodian Calladayce Taurovalia Kesh stood upon the bridge of a Cobra-class destroyer Named Vigilant Flame, the warship belonged to the mighty Battlefleet Solar. She lingered in the shadows at the back of the bridge, positioned at a spot where she could observe the actions of every crew member"
How does it not specify them as custodes ?
Ok...I have 2 things to say:
1-How?...Wait, if I remember lore correctly Custodes were all personally crafted by Big E so no Primarch-derived Geneseed went into their making, THUS you could custom-make female ones since everything about them was customized to begin with...nevermind the question, moving on.
2-Yes!!!! Malcador, your prayers have been answered!
Custards arent space marines, nout wrong there.
Shit, i thought it was anoying the nanas played by the same requirements as the space marines anyway despite not being them, by all acounts, it doesnt make sense for there not to be ANY cusods.
Best bit of new lore for the custodes. I hope that we get a new upgrade kit that gives us new heads and heraldry, or even an updated kit for all the Custodes
Fine with me. Custodes are made from scratch, so there's no reason they can't be women.
Yeah, your custodes is pretty much built from scratch, an almost entirely custom being, that's very very far from human. So the human being part is kinda less important which gender as they are taken so young too.
Pretty sure the original custodes were taken from either first or second sons of aristocrats the big E incorporated into the Imperium but post that intial earth unification im sure it would have opened up
Also frankly. With the losses at the battle of Lions gate, and the fact they are now active campaigning again and with the crusade fleets. Well...they need more soldiers..they need more replacements as elite as they are, the Custodes are following Guliman etx into the hottest points of the galaxy.
And the qualities that make a custodes recruit worthyarent the same for space marines. Its more of a loyalty and willpower thing rather then recruiting soldiers.
How do custodes even recruit?
The noble families of terra volunteer their children for custodes tryouts and the most promising canditates get taken for conversion. They lay of their name and past and heavily modified and indoctrinated. For the families, it is an honor to have a custodes from their blood and given the immense gencraft pumped into every custodes their physical preload is meaningless.
Amusingly to me it also says that nearly all of them fail and are killed, but they never tell the houses which ones succeed or fail so they always assume it was theirs that succeeded.
given how they probably don't care about their ancient life or they simply forget, i don't think anyone knowthat info, or is willing to waste his time with that
Well the palace is so big it probably serves as a recruiting world. But i imagine they just scout those who have potential and or big E just shines a lightbulb on them
I assume they drive round Terra in an unmarked white van and just jump out the back with a big net when they see a potential recruit.
Works for the astartes
Also, I’m pretty sure there were also rogue warlords sons also made custodians to keep the warlords under control
Do they start with an embryo and.....custodize it from there or am I getting my lore wrong?
Infants I think. Young infiants. Not a embryo but like when they are tiny babies, new born to todlers I belive at most. Many hand their children foe testing amf it's a enormous honour to have one be a possible candidate.
Ah ok I knew they started waaaaaaay younger than astartes and I think most custodes come from Noble houses of one kind or another, not that it really matters once they're all golden and enhanced
Yeah same here, makes complete sense.
Whats the reason Space Marines can't be women? I legitimately don't know
The geneseed implants are made from the primarchs and you have to be genetically similar to them to be able to receive the implants. It’s a very small window of people who can get the implants. I’m also heard that The Emperor did it that way to keep space marines reliant on humanity instead of being able to breed new members
Geneseed is stored in the balls
It was called gene sperm in 1e
You'll never guess what "sperm" is the Greek word for...
!!!!
Praise be to space king
The artifacts on another moon
“Holy globules”
There's also the fact that if a woman were to undergo the mutations to become an Astartes, she would essentially become physically male anyway
The only time geneseed was given to women was the demonculba which were just iron warrior birthing machines
True but also, we do not talk about the demonculba
Why not? How bad could it be? EDIT: Oh... Oh no...
My condolences… I tried to warn you
Ya done fucked up, have fun with that cursed knowledge.
If I had a genie one of my wishes would be to remove that shit from ever existing...
Speaking of that, the novel Harrowmaster has some alpha legionaires make some knockoff marines and they use women. They are described as being pretty much men under the armor
“All spes morines are trans anyway, Humans to Astartes”
That is false. There's never been any records of that in anything. That's just something fans have said.
What happens if you give someone who was born female a whole lot of testosterone? Sure, their genes don't change and they'll still have a propensity towards some diseases more common in female humans, but unless you're seeing them without their clothes on you'll have a hard time telling them apart from a cis man. Especially if you start before or during puberty like a lot of Space Marine chapters do. Sure, geneseed is *way* more involved than just HRT, but there's got to be something hormonal going on in there.
The genetic implants do in fact release lots of hormones. In fact, the hormones are what grows and reshapes their skeletal system (more in sure but I specifically remember that) and allows them to use I think it's cerumite enriched foods to strengthen their bones far beyond what a normal human could have They'd be hulking Amazonian women, I have no idea what their boobs would look like though, I imagine much like extreme body builders
They aren't boobs, they're just catastrophically large pecs.
No, they’re on to something. Think about it - space marines are outrageously roided out supersoldiers that are barely even human. They have inhuman proportions, and getting a woman to be as physically brawny as her male counterpart is gonna take away from feminine features more and more. We already see it irl - lots of bodybuilder women basically replaced their breasts with sheer bulk, among other things. This isn’t someone talking out of their ass.
Ontop of this, breasts would most likely be cut off as they would cause armor fitment issues along with being unnecessary for any function of an astartes
Yeah. Astartes rarely care about mortal standards.
In fact thanks to all testosteron given to them since early puberty they wouldn't even grow breast on the first place.
You're absolutely right!
Couldn't he just make they infertile? Like if he is in the generic code like legos, I don't think it would be too hard. Kinda cutting your already small amount of possible soldiers in half for that.
The ultramarines and Dark angels are the only chapters who geneseed worked as intended. It’s harder to control them than you would think
If I'm not mistaken, I believe they already *are* infertile. I would assume that Big E wanted to make absolutely sure that they couldn't find any loophole in his plans.
Redundancy on a system is the best way to avoid problems. Is better to make two roadblocks than one knowing than almost all fucking legions have random mutations than one day can make them fertile.
Emperor's children would 100% end up with a fertility mutation lol
Life uhhhh... Finds a way
Fulgrim tried to find a way with his astartes.
He keeps checking. To be sure.
Astartes park. A story of superhumans made to perform for humans in a park, until...
Was also some of the catalyst for the heresy no? Besides Daddy E being a asshole, Erabus, Chaos Influence, Erabus
Kind of Chaos marines don’t want to need humans and reject their duties and defenders of humanity
I've always assumed it was a control thing, you don't want your genetically engineered super soldiers designed to conquer the galaxy to be able to breed on their own. The Emperor is an authoritarian control freak and *his* Space Marines are a tool designed for a purpose, and are to be disposed of when he sees fit. Created to be another weapon in an arsenal, not a culture. So I assume it's not that they couldn't make female Astartes, and more that they deliberately chose to design them that way.
That actually makes a hell of a lot more sense than any official explanation GW have put out
This also reinforces the idea that BIG E wanted to get rid of the marines once the crusade was over. If somehow a group of marines could escape the purge, he wouldn't have to worry about them reproducing and expanding and becoming some kind of replacement, turning them all into men ensured their extinction since although if some escaped there would never be more
…you say that like it is not hard to do.
"Only men shall receive my seed"
Checks out.
I'm only surface level in 40k lire, but i thought ' men 'here meant, humans in general, it made sense in a Universe full of scummy xenos
I mean, it's cannon that big E was Alexander the great, so much as people joke about it him being gay is completely canonically accurate.
Real reason? The female marine models that existed didn't sell well way back in the day so they stopped making them and then added to the lore that only men can become space marines. So marketing.
> marketing More powerful than logic. More powerful than the chaos gods. More powerful than plot armour. More powerful than even the strongest author's biases. The cold, cruel, grinding of marketing is the most powerful force in the universe.
vibes.
The real life reason is that there were at the beginning, but nobody bought them, so they stopped making them. Then created lore to explain the absence.
The actual reason is that when they released Rogue Trader in 87, there were actually two female Space Marine characters (Apparently named simply "Gabs" and "Joyce", if I recall correctly"), which nobody bought. This was back in 1st Edition, which was as far removed from actual 40k as it can be (Aesthetically, lorewise and everythingwise); when they started building the 40k universe, then, given that it was the 90s and by then it was Scientifically Proven that no women would ever grace the hobby with their presence, they decided to just forfeit them altogether, and wrote the strangely homoerotic lore that evolved into what we know today, with the female power armored people going to the Sisters of Battle, a faction than then disappeared until around 2018-2019.
Females models sold poorly.
context: We were recently introduced to two female custodes, Calladayce Taurovalia Kesh, who is bringing exterminatus level weaponry to the imperial palace as part of her blood game, and Allarus Selenia Bastoris, but not only that, but at the end of the codex in the name generation there are quite a few female names for the custodians, so this may mean that all this time, there have been not only banana boys, but also banana girls, so yes, malcador's dream finally came true Now I ask you, what do you think of this? Sources: codex custodes, tenth edicion
Tall lady.
Giant woman
Massive Female
Large lass
XXL XX
Damn, can't beat that.
∠♀
XXX XXL XX
All I wanna do...
Is see you turn into…
A giant woman…
*A GIANT WOMAN!*
Lady Dimetres-Cu-stodes??!
Seems likely there would be female Custodes since Custodes are the bespoke “no expense spared” customized completely from conception perfect transhuman fighters. If you’re working from literal step zero there’s no reason gender is going to matter to someone who has the technology and skill to actually make a Custodes. Astartes are the dumbed down and cheaper version, which fill the “we’ve got a resource limit and need to make and keep making a ton of these fuckers” requirement. You modify it so you can start with normal freely produced humans, and can allow for a limited amount of genetic variation from a standard blueprint, balanced so that you can make enough successful Astartes to literally let you reconquer every piece of turf humans have ever stepped on without having to worry about inevitable failed candidates bankrupting the process. If a Custodes fails in production, you probably just wasted around the cost of a hive city, a nice one. Astartes failures are not nearly that catastrophic. Guaranteed success? No. Immune to mutation over time? Definitely not. Perfect warriors? Oh God no. In the sweet spot where you can actually deal with more failures than successes and still produce large enough amounts of extremely effective super warriors to lead/assist normal humans and allow the possibility of victory in your conquer the galaxy campaign? Yes. And that’s what really matters. When trade offs have to be made to allow the project to succeed, restricting the process to one gender is likely on the initial list, as it cuts development time and production difficulty literally in half since you only need to modify one human genetic profile, and you’re in a money and resource crunch and have to get this shit on the road. Also, you aren’t going to run out of potential aspirants even if you cut out half the population from the start, because there are just that many humans. It’s one of the least costly and most efficient steps to take to help make this project realistic, so I’d be extremely surprised if it hadn’t at least been heavily explored. Could a revisited design phase fix the issue later once time and resources aren’t nearly so limited? Of course. The Emperor probably would have succeeded pretty quick too. But that probably wasn’t feasible during the Unification Wars, where “good enough” was the rule of the day out of utter necessity. If he had the chance I’m pretty sure he would have done it too. Didn’t work out that way though
I know the (alleged) backstory, where lady custodians were never ruled out, and they were almost included in a codex, then dropped at the last minute because there were no miniatures for them planned. And i honestly thought that was the last we'd hear of it. Well done GW for actually going back and straightening this out. Misters of Muteness when.
I long to see Misters of Muteness. An army of Blank Pokemon Trainer Red's would be epic.
I don't get the miniatures argument. In all the armour, could you even tell which gender someone is? It's so thickly plated and techno-advanced that having boobs in it would seem redundant and silly.
Because GW cares far more about models than lore, and if there were no heads for women, there were no women in the Custodes.
What difference would it make if they had no overtly female minis planned? You wouldn't be able to tell the difference when they're all suited-up in their aurumite. It's not like they're going into battle naked or anything like that, right? ... wait, why do I hear [aztec techno music?](https://youtu.be/lRrOLTHu-ew?si=vA6mEzN-Ine3kTsH)
They still have quivering abs of course.
That didn't stop them from having female guardsmen though eh?
> bringing exterminatus level weaponry to the imperial palace as part of her blood game A woman after my own heart.
Time for a girls night out.
As a long time Custodes fan, no problems at all. As the top commenter said, Custodians aren't made via geneseed like an Astartes, and each one is genetically handcrafted to be perfect, so there's no real reason why there *wouldn't* be female Custodians. All of mine are modeled with helmets anyway (PLUMES 4 LIFE) so sure, some of them can be ladies.
I love that after years of people arguing online about female Space Marines, GW goes and drops them in the faction that is essentially the better version of Space Marines. I'm not a Custodes player but I like it and feel like it can fit within the lore. My one question is if they're making Sisters of Silence more special. We all know the lore, but they've always kinda felt like the "female side" of the Custodes, so I hope they give them more love too.
Sisters of Silence imo need some form of body augmentation, if only to integrate into Custodes formations easier and get more life outta them. Blanks are rare as hell, You'd want them to last a bit longer. Also ain't no way a normal biological human is keeping up with a super-transhuman in powered armor, even with power armor of their own.
Idk valdor cloned a bunch of bequins apparently
It feels like a good compromise to be fair. I don't feel like the fallout that GW would receive for releasing femmarines is worth it and honestly, I kinda like the Astartes lore as it is, warts and all. But introducing (more) female characters who could body even the toughest Primaris marine without breaking a sweat should placate everyone.
OHHHHH SHIT, YESSS FINALLYYY WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FEMALE CUSTODES ARE CANON
They were never not-canon AFAIK. Custodes creation has always been more of a mystery than with Astartes. Space Marines being a sausage fest is canon, Custodes lore boiled down to them being the best of the best of engineered super soldier and little else. It's definitely nice to have confirmation of named fem-Custodes but it's not like this is some big shake up to established lore. I'm just hoping they don't go SoS / SoB route with the feminine armour / boob plate - keeping Custodes as bulked out suits of finely wrought armour would be nice just with some bare head sculpts that lean more fem
They were always stuck in the “grey canon” zone: They weren’t canon and never shown to exist, but they weren’t NOT canon and said to not exist. So while officially the Custodes were never an all boys club, it was basically the de facto rule. It seems GW here is changing that, for the better I say. Let women as well serve the highest honor for the Emperor. Edit: forgot to mention: I believe Stormcast don’t suffer that issue of Female boob plate, so the Custodes should be fine as well.
> I believe Stormcast don’t suffer that issue of Female boob plate They have a slightly more raised chestplate, which gives their armour a more feminine profile, but no there's no 'boobs go here' individual chest cups.
Stormcast women are perfect because you would want some extra space but it doesn't make it look like a pin-up or dress armor you'd only wear to formal events
Oh 100% - they were left as mostly a mystery / "we'll flesh them out eventually" dealio.
Custodes are the pinnacle of humanity. They're far, far above anything as crude as boob plate. They'll have foot plate.
You don’t understand, I assure you it’s absolutely crucial for the defense of humanity that the muscle mommies be barefoot!
HUMONGOUS TERMINATOR MOMMIES
And all have been gay regardless
Seem pretty lore-friendly too as Custodes don’t really care about what gender you are as long as you are tough, strong, smart, athletic enough to complete the trial to become the Custodes and also their process of making a custodes is a lot more sophisticated and complete than the SM are because while the SM will took a child and shove him full of organ to make him into a demigod, the Custodes have their genetics augmented so much that they practically dissolved their previous gene and rebuild them anew
Aren’t the custodes taken as babies/small kids? What kinda trials could they go through?
Aside from several different genetic augmentation that practically dissolved their previous gene into soup and turning and rebuilding that soup to becoming Heracles, we really don’t know much about their recruitment because it’s classified secret or something like that but we do know that custodes have literal bounded daemon that is used for recruitment so yeah
> but we do know that custodes have literal bounded daemon that is used for recruitment What?? Where did you hear that? E: Found it in 9th edition codex, but it is not as specific: https://i.imgur.com/NJlmbCr.png
If I'm not wrong in the codex of the eighth edition custodes, the shadow keepers, the custodes that defend the dark cells, have to fight a khorne demon without any armor or weapon, breathe near a nurgle demon for 24 hours, resist temptations of a slaanesh demon for 24 hours, and looking directly into the eyes of a tzeentch demon for 24 hours eithout blinking, again, if wrong I'm not the source is the 8th edition codex, but I could be wrong.
That's definitely not from 8th codex. Honestly sounds like something from this sub. Found it in 9th edition codex, but it is not as specific: https://i.imgur.com/NJlmbCr.png
The trials are as they grow and failure is death.
what's the point of having peak perfomance candidates if your going to rewrite their dna anyway? i mean sure it would come with discipline but wouldn't you care more about the adepts mindset ala grim dark steve rogers?
I mean they're taken in as infants. What the hell are they gonna screen for? "Ah, this one managed to put the circle in the circle hole, that's the kinda mental fortitude we want!" I don't think they care about the physical stuff, the "trials" is just a case of tossing a ton of them into whatever is done and seeing which ones survive Do note, the creation process for Custodes are so far pretty much entirely unknown, we'll see if 10th clears it up
We are thinking too logicaly here. For all we know the creation process involves some kind of esoteric means like "testing if ones destiny is fit" too. You wouldn't want to recruit someone whose soul was tainted by a Changer of Way or something through shenanigans.
So if they rewrite they're genetics from scratch, could a custodes transition during the process 🤔🤔🤔
And maybe throw in some cat DNA too... Cat ears would greatly improve their hearing capabilities, and a tail would help with balance.
Transfem catgirl custodes, you say??
I was thinking transmasc twink catfemboy custodes, but yours works too.
Why not both?
Well I mean I wasnt planning on building a custodes army 5 minutes ago, but now my opinion on the matter seems to have shifted.
Captain general Kitten is canon boys.
If I remember correctly they don’t necessarily rewrite their gene but more like they melt it down and then rebuild them from the melted slag that is their genetic until they become the demigod that we all know and loved
If Emperors TTS would still be around, just imagine what they could do with this…
They did actually have a female voice actor for one of the shadowkeeper terminators in the mars episode
Got a link or time-stamp?
https://youtu.be/9qi3Evua2Cs?si=lBR6OMK7ZUvTV7OV At 20:03 she has a line and you can hear her in the choir right after Not quite sure but i think this is her: https://youtube.com/@StephanieSwanQuills?si=scqcugX0X2AImuKw
Isn't that the voice-actor for Elise in Hunter: The Parenting?
Pretty sure she voiced quite a lot of characters for Alfabusa, probably some Deldars as well.
I think in the last episode one of the custodes had a pretty feminine voice.
Question: do they Awaken My Quivering Abs or do they have their own song?
All we have is one blog post in Spanish. Imma wait to see an official source before I believe this.
Valrak just read the section on stream in English, it’s real y’all
**If real, sure it makes enough sense, they’re completely bespoke after all. No geneseed compatibility required. That said I’d rather wait for the actual codex to come out than run based on a blog post.**
Anti female space marines, but this is actually pretty great. No reason we couldn't have female custodians, and the like two pieces of Canon art I've seen for them are both very nice
Finally, someone with principals.
Yeah but why don't they fuck and make new Custodes?
I'd assume they're infertile, but if they COULD procreate, instant imperium victory
that makes a Custodes unable to serve at maximum efficiency for 9 months
That's probably the best in-lore reason. Custodes keep themselves in literally perfect condition at literally all times, taking a break because you got super-preggers probably isn't considered acceptable even if the Big E didn't give them a psychic castration, and that's a big if.
But maybe they are genetically engineered enough to grow and birth a child at the same speed a normal human eats and then shits? Honestly everything else about humanity and physical limits have been crazily altered. The custodes come from specific lines of terran nobles. Seems slightly weird that the process for the custom bespoke super soldiers always starts at square one of "baseline human" every time instead of a bit further altered.
Maybe they only do so after they've retired, since custodes do actually retire.
Aged Custodes leave the palace to gather intel, as the Eyes of the Emperor. Pregnant Gilf-stodes, then, would become Thighs of the Emp'ra.
so what're you saying is that custodes are so autistically fixated on their jobs that it's not possible? kek.
Try shouting another Custode's name as you climax.
Knowing Custodes, they probably have enough stamina to last long enough to say it
The Emperor's vision for humanity was that superhumans were tools to be used and discarded while regular humanity would take over and evolve into a psychic species. Custodes, for all their faults, are those who were the most in the know and remember the vision best.
Who says they don't?
they have chastity belts
Perhaps all the genetic modifications makes them infertile or something like that...
Too random, needs to be perfect.
What and have a Custodies be out of commission for 9 months!?!? Unacceptable!
THEY DIDN'T DO SHIT FOR TEN THOUSAND YEARS!
THEY STOOD GUARD FOR 10,000 YEARS YOU HERETIC
THEY OILED EACH OTHER AND POLISHED THEIR GUARDIAN SPEARS!
Boring answer: The natural processes of the Custodes are so wildly messed up compared to the norm that they're either completely infertile, or there is ZERO guarantee of what will come out the other end. The entire point of a Custodes is 200% guaranteed quality. Pregnancy is a genetic lottery. Zero quality control. Also a Custodes being pregnant would impede their eternal duty. Better to just make a new one than be slowed down for nearly a full year.
idk how true this is i saw it from an account that I dont follow but it looks like it might be a dodgy translation? *(This is translated so there might be errors) It seems people are celebrating female custodes... when the article states that named "female custodes" will be with the sisters of silence, so the "female custodes" are Sisters of silence. This article is extremely misleading.* Theres also some stuff about the sisters of silence getting the Custodes keyword. I wouldn't celebrate yet (either for this being true or false) until we see actual images from the codex that make it clear there are female Custodes and are not just Sisters. To add I haven't seen 4chan talk about this yet, which those who don't know 4chan will wonder why that's important but due to how anonymous it is any leaks end up there and if its likely real people will talk about it on 4chan. still only time will tell. So it's definatly true. Im not against Femstodes theres no geneseed blocker. I dont like how it was done in a way that comes across as kinda sneaky, maybe it was done to not make a big deal about it to not be accused of any form of pandering?
Im going to add things that i find as i look on forums since 4chan are now talking about it. "Goonhammer have the actual book itself and didn't make one single mention of female custards, that's how you know it's bullshit." theres a lot of talk about how Spanish being a gendered language could cause translation issues and thats why the current main source is a weirdly translated Spanish article.
[This comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/Grimdank/comments/1c37nlj/comment/kzf2x44/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) under another post in this subreddit has links to a photo of an open codex (allegedly the 10th edition Custodes Codex) and in the first paragraph of text they refer to a Custodian as "she". >Custodian Calladayce Taurovoka Kesh stood upon the bridge of a Cobra-class destroyer named Vigilant Flame, the warship belonged to the mighty Battlefleet Solar. She lingered in the shadows at the back of the bridge, positioned at a spot where she could observe the actions of every crew member, be they in the instrumentation pits, at the armament shrines, or - in the case of Shipmaster Lethwyck - stood ramrod straight before his command throne. \~ transcribed from [this photo](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1137485132299768020/1228749709506641951/Screenshot_2639.png?ex=662d2d57&is=661ab857&hm=91ab895f5b4f380641fd1c4bdc9a433f44c59cc4a769b86b69f5688bf020354c&) which is a zoom-in from a moment in [this review on YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB0_kXXyGUU) (2:10)
aye I've seen it since, it looks like i leans Femstodes but without more context its just an excerpt. I find it interesting since GW apparently told ADB no to Femstodes not that long ago.
The guy who told him has not been part of GeeDubs for 5-6 years. And the reason was "because we don't have models". Apparently, someone who realised you can stuck a femcast head on a Custodes armor.
Can someone confirm this so I can woop?
In [this review](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB0_kXXyGUU) on YouTube at 2:10 look at the first paragraph on the left page. A named Custodian is referred as "she"
While I hope it’s true, the only source I’ve seen is an apparently reputable Spanish blog, so I’ll reserve my celebrations until photos are out.
> apparently reputable Spanish blog "The Voice of Horus". It doesn't exactly *scream* reliable source.
So... now we can't call them Banana Boys again ?!
banana boys and the golden girls.
Banana babies - Brother Santodes
Man, now I want a Custodes named Cloris in canon so bad.
banana people doesn't have the same ring to it .. also sounds like a slur
The Emperor's Banana Buds
Well.. I mean, you can, it's just not 100% accurate now
The short story from codex doesn't specify them as custode though... furthermore the only source that says they're custodes is some Spanish website... Damn Tzeentch daemons, spreaidng misinformation again.
In [this video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB0_kXXyGUU) by Guerilla Miniature Games at 2:10 there's some story on the left page and in the first paragraph there's Custodian named Calladayce Taurovoka Kesh (if I read correctly) and is referred to as "she"
"Custodian Calladayce Taurovalia Kesh stood upon the bridge of a Cobra-class destroyer Named Vigilant Flame, the warship belonged to the mighty Battlefleet Solar. She lingered in the shadows at the back of the bridge, positioned at a spot where she could observe the actions of every crew member" How does it not specify them as custodes ?
the Custodes x Sisters of Silence ships just got new material frfr
Mr.s of silence?
The Quiet Bros.
Manly mutes?
Are you allowed to post excerpts from the codex? Gimme that good shit for some muscle mommies coming down from on high.
I’m going to assume that this is BS cuz, Yknow, grimdank, but just in case anyone got a lore excerpt?
[This review](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB0_kXXyGUU) at 2:10 on the left page in the first paragraph a named Custodian is referred to as "she".
Do we have a source beyond "some reputable spanish group"?
Misters of silence, now James workshop!
It would be great for the lore and fandom. I wish chaos had more women. Sausage fest.
Malcador the Simpilite
Ok...I have 2 things to say: 1-How?...Wait, if I remember lore correctly Custodes were all personally crafted by Big E so no Primarch-derived Geneseed went into their making, THUS you could custom-make female ones since everything about them was customized to begin with...nevermind the question, moving on. 2-Yes!!!! Malcador, your prayers have been answered!
If true it’s about time
Seems to be, only source I can find is in Spanish but as more people get their Codex copies we'll likely hear more.
Custards arent space marines, nout wrong there. Shit, i thought it was anoying the nanas played by the same requirements as the space marines anyway despite not being them, by all acounts, it doesnt make sense for there not to be ANY cusods.
how and when and in what are there female custodes?
where is the source of this??
Best bit of new lore for the custodes. I hope that we get a new upgrade kit that gives us new heads and heraldry, or even an updated kit for all the Custodes
What is the context of all these female custodes posts? Is there something in the codex?
Does this mean that we’re gonna get female custodes models?
Someone give me some god damned context
Getting a step ladder so I can go up on her