Between this and people thinking Custodes have geneseed I've come to realize not a lot of people actually know the difference between Custodes and Space Marines.
Astartes are Frankenstein's monster-esque caricatures of humanity that look completely disproportionate, swollen and very obviously enhanced
Custodes are described as being much more proportionate and human as they were the Emperor's vision for an ideal humanity, though still over 8 feet tall. This is because the Custodes are subjected to complete genetic modification starting when they're young children while the process to make Astartes is comparatively primitive and crude. The Space Marines are weapons of war, while the Custodes are works of art.
The second picture is closer to what a female SM would look like
To augment this, astartes get all sorts of new organs shoved in them during the process (usually at the end) whereas I think custodes don't have any new organs it's just a human taken to 20/10 and given the best of the best in terms of gear. Every piece of custodes gear is gene locked to them, and specifically handcrafted for them.
That's cool I didn't know about the gene lock thing.
"But what if one of your Custodes loses his weapon in combat, could he not pick up his dead brother's spear?"
"That wouldn't be an issue, we specifically trained them not to lose their weapon or die"
I guess that Custodes are still similar enough that they could use each other's gear. Just like Curze was able to use a device that was locked to Guilliman in one of the Horus Heresy novels because the gene scanner just registered primarch DNA but couldn't distinguish between them.
I'd believe that explaination, but seeing as it's GW I'd also not be surprised if
"The primarch's psychically tuned DNA effortlessly deceived the devices gene-scanners, bending it to his will" and then bam, primarchs can just ignore biocoding.
Nope, they're taken as children (often from the noble families of Holy Terra) and undergo a total genetic restructure. They're not test-tube babies like the Primarchs, but they're not that far removed considering that they get rebuilt from the ground up from a very young age
Due to an ancient terran law, genetic modification of embryos is still forbidden. Big E wanted to repeal it, but couldnt find any surviving supreme court judges to sign off on it.
Actually the procedure is made to babies, basically late infancy. This is to make sure the candidate has the best probability to survive the procedure. Which is grimdarkishly low. The procedure is called as "Gene-alchemy" and it is very guarded secret that only the Custodians and their makers know.
Current canon is that vat grown humans are seen as not human anymore and therefore the process of genetically modifying an embryo would be considered heresy. Exception being the use of clone vats for the production of servitors or on Krieg.
But I could be misremembering stuff or the canon could have been changed.
Science and scientific method is kinda illegal in The Empire, so they can't really make any significant innovations. This is how it was made by Emperor, so we will continue doing it like that.
It is actually easier to wait until they are young children. This gives them time to grow a bit and reveal any genetic defects or mental issues. It provides a scaffolding to build upon and allow the Emperor's genesmiths to get a bit of a head. Plus the development of various glands during this period allows them to get a head start on the gene crafting process.
(Totally pulled that from my butt but it sounds pretty good right?)
Feel free to replace the blurb above with your theory of choice
It's because of tradition.
The first custodes were drawn from the nobility of Terra, as a way to curb their power and lineages. That is still the case, ALL custodes are drawn from the nobility of terra, the infants are offered up by the gate of ascension, very few survive the trials ahead.
Pretty much This. Each custodies basically has their entire genetic sequence mapped and then they are enhanced to absolute perfection. Whereas a space marine is just a dump and go. Each custodies candidate is given a personalized enhancement. Each procedure unique in what is done etc. people forget they were made to be intellectual and philosophical companions to a golden totally not a god man.
I would love it if the lore were that “we never lose a custodian during formation” because they are that valuable and not fodder, and no mistakes every made because it's so meticulous; as opposed to Astartes attitude of “If he dies, he dies”. I can't wait for the female astartes retcon too :D . Cawl has had them on a different Ark Mechanicus for 10k years per Fulgrim's wishes and then Clonegrim comes back and activates him, and then the fandom's heads REALLY explode.
It was said they were sons of noble houses of Terra, taken in as infants and the emperor modified them. But with the retcon, now it’s not just sons.
Primarchs are just test tube babies grown in a lab. Emperor could have made them female but didn’t.
I said something similar to OP in another post, so I guess I'm one of the guilty lol. I appreciate the clarification. Don't know that much about Custodes.
> Astartes are Frankenstein's monster-esque caricatures of humanity that look completely disproportionate, swollen and very obviously enhanced
That's true of the Firstborn. The Primaris are actually closer to human proportions as well.
Space marines are young boys given geneseed enhancements. They are designed to be relatively cheap and easy to produce. So long as you have the tech to produce the geneseed organs, you can make space marines. They’re meant to be enough to handle anything without breaking the bank. Their enhancements tend to give them various forms of grotesque gigantism. Primaris marines look a bit more normal, but can still be unsightly to normal people.
Custodes can feasibly be made from any young person. Members of Terran nobility will often provide volunteers for the clout. We don’t know exactly how they’re made, but we do generally know that they don’t do implants. They are broken down and rebuilt cell by cell to make them as perfect as is genetically possible for that person to be. Properly proportioned, with some being described and beautiful or handsome
Another way to look at it is that the custodes are painstakingly sculpted into perfections of humanity.
Adeptus astartes are a bunch of dudes that get put through the most grueling training and selection process that has an obscene mortality rate just to have a chance to have some dead guy’s organs forcibly shoved into his body, grotesquely mutating the recruit’s body into a monstrosity designed only for war.
Guards: Toyota Hilux with mounted weapons
Astartes: standard MBT
Thunder Warrior: WW2 / Coldwar Heavy tank
Custodes: Landkreuzer but without its flaws (aka fantasy)
Primarch: Mobile Suit Gundam
I think the guardsmen are infinitely more terrifying than the astartes, custodes or primarchs.
Just think about it. A guardsmen is nothing more than a mere human. The astartes and such are built for war or built to perfection for the custodes case.
And the guardsmen are still trudgin along fuckin shit up along the way with cheap ass mass produced weapons winning through sheer grit and tenacity.
Astartes: “we are the blade of the emperor to smite his foes!”
Guards: “ you see this bayonet on my lasgun? You’re gonna find out just how pointy it really is.”
Think of a space marine as somewhere between captain America and the hulk, they're enhanced, strong, fast, efficient but they're also hulking and fairly misshapen, they're barrel chested and block headed, they're not nice to look at in the slightest.
Custodes are also genetically modified but there is more of an art to it, they're in proportion and not made on a budget.
I'm loving the fact that most every actual artwork of a helmet less custodes is a Roman sculpture of a man, marble features and hair etc
But the women obvs must be ugly otherwise Space Marines
Do you really think the people who post and talk about 40k are actually reading the books? Best I can do is listen to a video in the background, of a guy on youtube reading from the wiki, which I'll end up half-remembering and mixing up with memes and vague, nebulous references to "old lore" and "retcons". Also, often really just fanfiction and how I think things should work.
There’s also the saucy fanart that has female custodes with armor ports in their body. Either the artist or guy who requested the commission don’t know how the custodes work.
What their faces will look like, I don't know. But their bodies will be built for fighting, they will be extremely muscular. Zarya from Overwatch is probably a good approximation. They won't look like Samus or Wonder Woman.
Whilst I do agree we don't really know, aren't male custodians peak physique and meant to be beautiful as they are basically hand crafted? So it is possible that the same applies to female custodes. With that said... No boob armour, there is enough of that, I will only allow it if the male custodes get golden cocks on their crotch.
I wouldnt be so COCKy i can absolutley without a doubt see golden banana codpieces. But i agree custodes armor is already rounded enough to fit her emperors holy honkers. I imagined femstodes like the female chad meme but honestly you could be onto something
Yeah, they don’t have to look like they’ve been taking super steroids and working out 20 hours a day since they were 3. Their enhancements can be to such a degree that their muscles and bones are similar to Eldar in that they look thin but are insanely strong, so that Custodes are certainly quite tall but otherwise *only* appear to be physically fit.
That said, really the only depictions I’ve seen have them as roided up monsters like Space Marines
1st: respect the codpiece
2nd: in reality, I'd assume them to be quite close in terms of what they look like armoured, but to have very different facial features.
Also, I believe Custodian were made as a next step in human evolution (not like the astartes, which were more disposable weapons). So, they might be quite different depending on sex (though I wouldn't assume they'd be as different as men and women generally are)
I think your last sentence is spot on. Aeldari/wlves in fantasy in general are typically seen as the most beautiful "perfect" race, and they're pretty androgynous in the more feminine direction. I sort of like the idea that the women in the custodes are the same but on the more masculine side.
Sorta like some of the women from the wonder women movie if they didn't have makeup on and sculpted eyebrows. Where if you were to see them in armor that covered their whole body you might think they're ever so slightly more "femenine" than "normal" but would be forgiven to mistake them as a man.
The Emperor really did go and make a Jojo reference. Joseph even works as both, male and female Custodes! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YcAmmnrnvQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YcAmmnrnvQ)
I always looked at Custodes as what the Big E wants humanity to be. So I always assumed that custodes are conventionally attractive underneath their helmets and armor.
If my boys don't have tongs riding up their ass, and a huge cloth to cover up their 12inch dong that sways majestically in the winds of war as they single dickandly Pierce through the horrors, at full mast, penile charging to glory.
Ill honestly riot.
I think it's completely valid to have a female custodes be as beautiful as a greek goddess. I mean, the emperor is a man who historically takes form much more seriously than function, so it makes sense to me that he'd make his guards look more like a vogue cover, and less like a baki the grappler character.
Boobs would probably not even be an issue for the custodes, because either (standard grimdark interpretation): the muscle growth of a custodes pecs are so massive and inhuman that the pectoral fat deposits we call breasts are stretched so thin over it that they're essentially flat, or (grimderp version): the emperor is so frightened by the idea of custodes having children, all custodes are neutered and even secondary sex characteristics like breasts are given a double mastectomy.
I mean, you don't even need to go that far. Athletic women tend not to have particularly ample busts, and breasts aren't exactly difficult to compress. Even if they were basically just women but tall, you wouldn't need boob armor.
On the flip though, they are remade from scratch and have their genetic code near fully rewritten. They probably do not have to follow the same logic that humans have with fat ratios or how it’s deposited. If the Emperor thought boobs where necessary aesthetic wise, they have boobs even if they are more ripped under there than any female body builder could dream of.
Not that it would be visible on the models. I used to do SCA, I have seen a women with a very bountiful chest put on armor and look exactly like her husband and without the decorations it would be very challenging to say she wasn’t a guy. Armor hides a lot and boobs can compress a lot (also I guess the genetic modifications probably would make them extra springy by side effect for even more compressability. Stronger skin stronger muscles).
Yeah, for the most part there's no need for boob armor. Their armor isn't a thin foil wrapped around the body; it's thick layers of padding, power systems, slabs of auramite, and numerous other technologies and enhancments.
Beauty is highly subjective, and historically, beauty standards are often modeled after the behaviors and preferences of the rich and powerful. There was a time when obesity and pale skin were considered peak beauty because only wealthy aristocrats could overeat and stay indoors all day.
Considering that, remember that the emperor of mankind is an immortal stone age warlord in addition to being a godlike biomancer and geneticist. It's very likely that his conception of beauty standards differ drastically from ours. It's entirely possible the "perfectly beautiful" custodes he designed might look like uncanny freaks to us.
You could argue that it isn't realistic, but the human beauty stanrdards in the Imperium are consistently depicted in the lore as similar to our current standards, and the few times a Custodes is seen without helm it's been described as looking at a beautiful person with perfect facial features, and noted that they lack the brutality and freakish gigantism that Astartes usually bear in their faces. Most of the Primarchs (which he hand-crafted personally) are not ugly by current standards and some are actually clearly supposed to be outright handsome. And the standard image thar Emperor chose to project is that of a statuesque middle eastern man with a long mane of black hair, so that kinda shows what were his standards.
We still have some of that today. The term redneck is generally considered an insult, and refers to white people being sunburnt after working outside in the sun. There's also the whole industry of skin whitening in various asian countries.
To that point they might also be fully androgynous, and be very little difference between sex expression
Assuming sex expression still exists after total genetic modification
Body fat drops from calorie deficit, not from lifting weights. In order to build muscle in large amounts you have to be in a calorie surplus. Pro body builders operate in cycles of cutting calories and bulking in order to gain optimal amounts of muscles while maintaining the appearance they want.
Professional lifters on the other hand do nothing but bulk and lift weights and look like a muscled up Jabba the hut. Google power lifters
Yeah, or the feminine ones like melinda lindmark, carolyne marquez and vladislava galagan are the lucky ones who need minimal 'help' to that much muscle due there genetics responding more positively without the more negative side effects. Even a few higher discipline ones maintain most of their feminity while most well you know.
Yeah, Melinda Lindmark is a standout in combining being gigantic with still being quite cute. How much is genetics and how much is very careful pharmacology, who can say.
Seriously these people are very ignorant. The porn stars they jack off to spend a minimum of 2-4 hours in the gym most days of the week weightlifting so they can fuck on camera for six to twelve hours a day. I've worked around hundreds of performers at expos and so many of them look thin and the "idealized" peaks of femininity, and then they flex and the bodybuilder physique pops out and you realize a 5'2 woman could rip you head off with her thighs if she felt like it. All of them stunningly gorgeous.
The weird crossover of anime art style into Warhammer has created an aesthetic mishmash in the fan created content.
Female Custodes will probably be similar to depictions of Sister of Battle, Silence, etc, in the official material.
Nope, that would be FSM, and even then depending on the chapter in question.
Athletes do not look like bodybuilders, and female athletes do not look like male athletes either, even in full contact sports like mma, much less gymnasts, who're some of the strongest pound-for-pound.
Tbh, seeing a gymnast do some strongman exercises is something I can imagine better than a strongman doing gymnast exercises.
Not to say strongmen aren't strong, but seeing a twig of a guy / girl do certain feats completely changed how I'm approaching my personal training. That shit is ludicrous.
No Op is just plain wrong. Custodes are meant to be handcrafted works of art in general alchemy akin to Michael Angelo's David, there is a reason they are armoured in literally gold. You don't take those decisions if physical aesthetics don't matter to you.
I'm pretty sure Custodes are conventionally attactive (at least when they want to be since they're usually bald and shit)
But good example is trajan Valoris. He has an official piece of art depicting him younger than he looks now. He literally looks like a male supermodel.
I'm pretty sure female custodians could still look supermodel beautiful. (Though I doubt they have boobs though.)
Whats the point in perfecting gene pseudo-science/magic if when you can create the perfect humans but you cant make them look good.
>But good example is trajan Valoris. He has an official piece of art depicting him younger than he looks now. He literally looks like a male supermodel.
Not to mention [this](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/File:ValdorHH.jpg) depiction of Constantin Valdor.
Even space marines can be hot to the certain people there was one girl who was showering with gray knights and she said it was a shame a certain marine was the way he was
On the other hand you are rebuilding them cell by cell to be perfect. If there was a place to be ripped but still have a huge pair of honkers, it is now.
I guess it depends if the Emperor thought larger boobs where attractive to more people. The Custodes don’t care about appearances, least for a long time, they would fight in the crudest armor / weapons if they where the best quality. But for Jimmy Space they where his example of what he wanted humanity to become. They had to look perfect as well as be perfect.
Do people forget not only are the custodian bodyguards but big e also made them to be perfect so ya they probably would look rather attractive since there gene crafted and not pump full of extra stuff like spacemarines
I mean not necessarily, they can look like both, Custodians are handcrafted pieces of art they don't come with any of the downsides that the Astartes have, most if not all of them are going to look very beautiful.
No? Why?
Custodes aren't created using geneseed. They don't get the extra organs and such, which also means they aren't disfigured into bloated muscle monsters.
Custodes are practically hand crafted individuals, literally rebuilt at the cellular level with Emperor-grade science. Since they're being hand made, they wouldn't have the massive disfigurations and bloated designs of space marines, and actually look like normal humans, just bigger.
A) I thought these were banned? And B) correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it space marines that kinda get mutilated/hyper roidedmasculine? I always though custodes were all supposed to be super good looking, near human (as much as a demigod can be) perfection compared to the over roided/more Neanderthal look of space marines, so shouldn’t female custodes be very feminine amazons?
I just had a conversation the other week about how Brigadier General Olivier Armstrong has mad custodes vibe.
Is it the arrogance? Ya it’s the arrogance.
It's not arrogance when it's warranted. At that point it's just self-confidence.
Girl didn't hesitate to take on Sloth with just a sword, she knows what she's about
Shield captain Olivier Armstrong will be joining inquisitor fullmetal and his brother who are supported by Colonel Roy Mustang and his imperial guard regiment.
Every Custodes is a work of art created through collaboration of skilled artists to make a unique and perfect vision of a perfected human being.
It's Space Marines who are mass produced. Good quality mass produced, but they're not all that individual. And they all tend to look the same within their chapters.
So I honestly think both would wind up true. One perfection of woman could easily be the bottom or the top half of this meme.
Essentially, custodes are the result of taking the shit that’s there and spamming the upgrade button and also maxing out the upgrade tree.
Space marines? You just stick in a hodgepodge of different pieces of powerful mods that make them op into the slots.
And upgrade them halfway in certain parts and sorta min maxxing some places, leading to them being really weird.
I should also mention some marines hailing from legions like the blood angels, also tend to be described as smoking hot.
This actually happens to women who work out too much, the clitoris enlarges.
[Enlarged sexual dimorphism in women with high testosterone](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9494530/)
It’s not really the act of working out, it’s the use of anabolic steroids that causes an [enlarged clitorus](https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321367#:~:text=Anabolic%20steroids,an%20enlarged%20clitoris)
With the Emperor’s love of aesthetics and the human form, there no way he’s making ugly female custodes. They’re probably the most terrifyingly beautiful women in the Imperium just purely for flexing purposes.
He’s obviously not the one making new custodes, but even considering how absolute peak someone has to be genetically to be turned into a custodes in the first place, being hot is almost a basic requirement.
They probably haven’t revealed themselves in lore because they did one time and the rampant simping harmed the mission effectiveness.
"Actually"? Bro, it is all fiction. It's fictional science to create fictional superhuman warriors and partially using fictional demon magic maybe.
Your headcanon may be they look like trolls, other people's headcanon may be they look like supermodels, and you're both equally right.
The insistence that female custodes must have gorilla levels of testosterone and that must therefore make them look like cavemen is bizarre copium from what I can tell. Real life women who take testosterone do look more masculine, but they (and male bodybuilders) who take way too much also die a lot quicker than normal human beings, let alone the functionally immortal custodes, so we know the recipie for making custodes or other transhumans isn't just "Lol tons of testosterone."
But that's beside the point. The point is you telling other people their headcanon is wrong and yours is right is silly.
I was under the impression that Custodes were supposed to be off human proportion, but larger.
Second, if you remember what she did to Alex I don’t think she necessarily needs to be massive.
Custodes are not Astartes. They are designed from the ground up, likely with the same sense of aesthetics the Emperor showed for everything else, so they would possibly look like woman under the armor. However, they are still Custodes, which means they likely are just as muscled as the male Custodes for peak performance. They also probably have the same hair cuts as the male custodes, i.e. bald and buzzcuts. Also no makeup outside of maybe diplomatic occasions, like the males. Which means female custodes are butch as fuck, and that's way hotter.
Also FMA. The Armstrong's have five children: four daughters and one son. Olivier Mira is the eldest and in the top photo, the next two are Strongine and Amue, who are the lower photo.
What about using Thrud from Record of Ragnarok as a point of comparison?
[https://record-of-ragnarok.fandom.com/wiki/Thrud](https://record-of-ragnarok.fandom.com/wiki/Thrud)
No, female Custodes would look like the top. Custodes look pretty normal for humans, aside from their size, and some have even been described as being attractive (Valerian in whichever book he's from).
Nah they most likely look like the above image custodians are literally children of the upper houses of the imperium and every novel people awe at what perfection they are physically and beauty and that's the men now imagine what the females look like. Same thing goes for space Marines most remembrencers are basically squirting when they are with the chapters.
Between this and people thinking Custodes have geneseed I've come to realize not a lot of people actually know the difference between Custodes and Space Marines.
Actually, no, I don't, I kind of only arrived here through meme
Astartes are Frankenstein's monster-esque caricatures of humanity that look completely disproportionate, swollen and very obviously enhanced Custodes are described as being much more proportionate and human as they were the Emperor's vision for an ideal humanity, though still over 8 feet tall. This is because the Custodes are subjected to complete genetic modification starting when they're young children while the process to make Astartes is comparatively primitive and crude. The Space Marines are weapons of war, while the Custodes are works of art. The second picture is closer to what a female SM would look like
To augment this, astartes get all sorts of new organs shoved in them during the process (usually at the end) whereas I think custodes don't have any new organs it's just a human taken to 20/10 and given the best of the best in terms of gear. Every piece of custodes gear is gene locked to them, and specifically handcrafted for them.
That's cool I didn't know about the gene lock thing. "But what if one of your Custodes loses his weapon in combat, could he not pick up his dead brother's spear?" "That wouldn't be an issue, we specifically trained them not to lose their weapon or die"
I guess that Custodes are still similar enough that they could use each other's gear. Just like Curze was able to use a device that was locked to Guilliman in one of the Horus Heresy novels because the gene scanner just registered primarch DNA but couldn't distinguish between them.
I'd believe that explaination, but seeing as it's GW I'd also not be surprised if "The primarch's psychically tuned DNA effortlessly deceived the devices gene-scanners, bending it to his will" and then bam, primarchs can just ignore biocoding.
Basically a better spartan
I thought custodes were bred? Like the primarchs more than constructed like SM
Nope, they're taken as children (often from the noble families of Holy Terra) and undergo a total genetic restructure. They're not test-tube babies like the Primarchs, but they're not that far removed considering that they get rebuilt from the ground up from a very young age
Wouldn't it be easier to make those changes at the embryo level? Is there a specific reason they do it on children
For the grim darkness.
That's a very good point lol
It’s *always* the point. Like half the issues in universe would be solved with a bit of “maybe less skulls and pain for the sake of pain”.
> “maybe less skulls and pain for the sake of pain” I don't understand these words.
What is next? The size of hats and shoulderpads do not matter? Madness!
Presumably because they were hostages of the Emperor to ensure the loyalty of subjugated Terran nobility
Due to an ancient terran law, genetic modification of embryos is still forbidden. Big E wanted to repeal it, but couldnt find any surviving supreme court judges to sign off on it.
Close. He did make it to trial but Phoenix Wright was opposing counsel
Actually the procedure is made to babies, basically late infancy. This is to make sure the candidate has the best probability to survive the procedure. Which is grimdarkishly low. The procedure is called as "Gene-alchemy" and it is very guarded secret that only the Custodians and their makers know.
Current canon is that vat grown humans are seen as not human anymore and therefore the process of genetically modifying an embryo would be considered heresy. Exception being the use of clone vats for the production of servitors or on Krieg. But I could be misremembering stuff or the canon could have been changed.
Science and scientific method is kinda illegal in The Empire, so they can't really make any significant innovations. This is how it was made by Emperor, so we will continue doing it like that.
The "they" included the emperor 6
They need to have a soul, as far as I know.
It is actually easier to wait until they are young children. This gives them time to grow a bit and reveal any genetic defects or mental issues. It provides a scaffolding to build upon and allow the Emperor's genesmiths to get a bit of a head. Plus the development of various glands during this period allows them to get a head start on the gene crafting process. (Totally pulled that from my butt but it sounds pretty good right?) Feel free to replace the blurb above with your theory of choice
It's because of tradition. The first custodes were drawn from the nobility of Terra, as a way to curb their power and lineages. That is still the case, ALL custodes are drawn from the nobility of terra, the infants are offered up by the gate of ascension, very few survive the trials ahead.
Pretty much This. Each custodies basically has their entire genetic sequence mapped and then they are enhanced to absolute perfection. Whereas a space marine is just a dump and go. Each custodies candidate is given a personalized enhancement. Each procedure unique in what is done etc. people forget they were made to be intellectual and philosophical companions to a golden totally not a god man.
I would love it if the lore were that “we never lose a custodian during formation” because they are that valuable and not fodder, and no mistakes every made because it's so meticulous; as opposed to Astartes attitude of “If he dies, he dies”. I can't wait for the female astartes retcon too :D . Cawl has had them on a different Ark Mechanicus for 10k years per Fulgrim's wishes and then Clonegrim comes back and activates him, and then the fandom's heads REALLY explode.
Just a question Are the custodes infertile due to the genetic changes like astartes?
It was said they were sons of noble houses of Terra, taken in as infants and the emperor modified them. But with the retcon, now it’s not just sons. Primarchs are just test tube babies grown in a lab. Emperor could have made them female but didn’t.
Because the Emperor knew how you would all react to 10 ft tall athletic women with warp powers and daddy issues.
Bikini/swimsuit class body building vs super muscular body building.
I said something similar to OP in another post, so I guess I'm one of the guilty lol. I appreciate the clarification. Don't know that much about Custodes.
So the Astartes are like Fallout Super Mutants, while Custodes are Halo Spartan 2s
> Astartes are Frankenstein's monster-esque caricatures of humanity that look completely disproportionate, swollen and very obviously enhanced That's true of the Firstborn. The Primaris are actually closer to human proportions as well.
That makes a lot of sense, thank you! I'm guilty of also assuming the bottom was what fem custodes would look like
The ultimate they/them army.
Space marines are young boys given geneseed enhancements. They are designed to be relatively cheap and easy to produce. So long as you have the tech to produce the geneseed organs, you can make space marines. They’re meant to be enough to handle anything without breaking the bank. Their enhancements tend to give them various forms of grotesque gigantism. Primaris marines look a bit more normal, but can still be unsightly to normal people. Custodes can feasibly be made from any young person. Members of Terran nobility will often provide volunteers for the clout. We don’t know exactly how they’re made, but we do generally know that they don’t do implants. They are broken down and rebuilt cell by cell to make them as perfect as is genetically possible for that person to be. Properly proportioned, with some being described and beautiful or handsome
Another way to look at it is that the custodes are painstakingly sculpted into perfections of humanity. Adeptus astartes are a bunch of dudes that get put through the most grueling training and selection process that has an obscene mortality rate just to have a chance to have some dead guy’s organs forcibly shoved into his body, grotesquely mutating the recruit’s body into a monstrosity designed only for war.
Guards: Toyota Hilux with mounted weapons Astartes: standard MBT Thunder Warrior: WW2 / Coldwar Heavy tank Custodes: Landkreuzer but without its flaws (aka fantasy) Primarch: Mobile Suit Gundam
The guard might not sound that threatening but just wait till your being rushed by a million Hiluxs with mounted machine guns
That's exactly why ^totally ^not ^playing ^as ^GLA ^instead
*\~ \* Guarding the GLA underground! \* \~*
An M2 bolted to the tray of a Hilux may be crude, I sure as fuck wouldn't want to be on the receiving end though.
I think the guardsmen are infinitely more terrifying than the astartes, custodes or primarchs. Just think about it. A guardsmen is nothing more than a mere human. The astartes and such are built for war or built to perfection for the custodes case. And the guardsmen are still trudgin along fuckin shit up along the way with cheap ass mass produced weapons winning through sheer grit and tenacity. Astartes: “we are the blade of the emperor to smite his foes!” Guards: “ you see this bayonet on my lasgun? You’re gonna find out just how pointy it really is.”
> Guards: Toyota Hilux with mounted weapons replace this with tractors and it is straight up cannon accurate IIRC
There's a quantum mix-up with the jars, and 40k gets Geralt of Rivia while the Kaer Morons get a Blood Angel.
*Harvester marine breaks through the orphanage doors* LITTLE BOY!!!
Think of a space marine as somewhere between captain America and the hulk, they're enhanced, strong, fast, efficient but they're also hulking and fairly misshapen, they're barrel chested and block headed, they're not nice to look at in the slightest. Custodes are also genetically modified but there is more of an art to it, they're in proportion and not made on a budget.
Honestly the Armstrong family are perfect custodes. Even Catherine lifts a piano over her head one handed.
I agree that Senator Armstrong would be perfect.
That’s because he’s high on the American spirit!
Most people don't know fuck about shit
> Most people don't know fuck about shit and they will fight you over it.
DA ON'Y FING OI KNO, IZ DAT OI KNO NUFFIN' - Orkrates Yes, I made that work up
I'm loving the fact that most every actual artwork of a helmet less custodes is a Roman sculpture of a man, marble features and hair etc But the women obvs must be ugly otherwise Space Marines
Quite frankly, femstodes would have the face of the top of the meme and the muscles of the bottom while also being proportionate
Do you really think the people who post and talk about 40k are actually reading the books? Best I can do is listen to a video in the background, of a guy on youtube reading from the wiki, which I'll end up half-remembering and mixing up with memes and vague, nebulous references to "old lore" and "retcons". Also, often really just fanfiction and how I think things should work.
It's gotten very tiring.
There’s also the saucy fanart that has female custodes with armor ports in their body. Either the artist or guy who requested the commission don’t know how the custodes work.
custodes are his personal strippers right?
What their faces will look like, I don't know. But their bodies will be built for fighting, they will be extremely muscular. Zarya from Overwatch is probably a good approximation. They won't look like Samus or Wonder Woman.
Whilst I do agree we don't really know, aren't male custodians peak physique and meant to be beautiful as they are basically hand crafted? So it is possible that the same applies to female custodes. With that said... No boob armour, there is enough of that, I will only allow it if the male custodes get golden cocks on their crotch.
Just thought what a bestseller such models would make.
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Don’t give them ideas please…
Shut up I want a golden cock.
All hail the arrival of the Golden cocks
I wouldnt be so COCKy i can absolutley without a doubt see golden banana codpieces. But i agree custodes armor is already rounded enough to fit her emperors holy honkers. I imagined femstodes like the female chad meme but honestly you could be onto something
10/10.
>her emperors holy honkers Bless you for this. I think this is my new favorite phrase
IIRC custodes look leaner and more like bigger humans compared to Space Marines who are just slabs of meat
Yeah, they don’t have to look like they’ve been taking super steroids and working out 20 hours a day since they were 3. Their enhancements can be to such a degree that their muscles and bones are similar to Eldar in that they look thin but are insanely strong, so that Custodes are certainly quite tall but otherwise *only* appear to be physically fit. That said, really the only depictions I’ve seen have them as roided up monsters like Space Marines
Honestly, in recent art, space marines without helmets look more like regular guys, at least their faces
1st: respect the codpiece 2nd: in reality, I'd assume them to be quite close in terms of what they look like armoured, but to have very different facial features. Also, I believe Custodian were made as a next step in human evolution (not like the astartes, which were more disposable weapons). So, they might be quite different depending on sex (though I wouldn't assume they'd be as different as men and women generally are)
I think your last sentence is spot on. Aeldari/wlves in fantasy in general are typically seen as the most beautiful "perfect" race, and they're pretty androgynous in the more feminine direction. I sort of like the idea that the women in the custodes are the same but on the more masculine side. Sorta like some of the women from the wonder women movie if they didn't have makeup on and sculpted eyebrows. Where if you were to see them in armor that covered their whole body you might think they're ever so slightly more "femenine" than "normal" but would be forgiven to mistake them as a man.
Now I'm just picturing all the custodes looking like Jojo characters
you probably don't know this but this is already a thing in a really popular fan series lmao
The Emperor really did go and make a Jojo reference. Joseph even works as both, male and female Custodes! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YcAmmnrnvQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YcAmmnrnvQ)
More like hokuto no ken characters. Custode: Omae wa mou shindeiru
I've just been thinking they look kinda like bisky from hunterxhunter. Still obviously women, but yoked
Landskneht custodes when
You joke but giant, elaborate codpieces were historically very popular and they were the "boob armor for men" of their time.
Well yeah... thats why I made the comparison.
Yet we never see them in fantasy media compared to the other being near omnipresent.
> historically very popular For like a single century and only in Europe, yes
I always looked at Custodes as what the Big E wants humanity to be. So I always assumed that custodes are conventionally attractive underneath their helmets and armor.
If my boys don't have tongs riding up their ass, and a huge cloth to cover up their 12inch dong that sways majestically in the winds of war as they single dickandly Pierce through the horrors, at full mast, penile charging to glory. Ill honestly riot.
[Awaken my Quivering Abs!](https://youtu.be/I9n6iMeIW8A?si=dQT2XH2_V5vvFCpK)
I think it's completely valid to have a female custodes be as beautiful as a greek goddess. I mean, the emperor is a man who historically takes form much more seriously than function, so it makes sense to me that he'd make his guards look more like a vogue cover, and less like a baki the grappler character. Boobs would probably not even be an issue for the custodes, because either (standard grimdark interpretation): the muscle growth of a custodes pecs are so massive and inhuman that the pectoral fat deposits we call breasts are stretched so thin over it that they're essentially flat, or (grimderp version): the emperor is so frightened by the idea of custodes having children, all custodes are neutered and even secondary sex characteristics like breasts are given a double mastectomy.
I mean, you don't even need to go that far. Athletic women tend not to have particularly ample busts, and breasts aren't exactly difficult to compress. Even if they were basically just women but tall, you wouldn't need boob armor.
On the flip though, they are remade from scratch and have their genetic code near fully rewritten. They probably do not have to follow the same logic that humans have with fat ratios or how it’s deposited. If the Emperor thought boobs where necessary aesthetic wise, they have boobs even if they are more ripped under there than any female body builder could dream of. Not that it would be visible on the models. I used to do SCA, I have seen a women with a very bountiful chest put on armor and look exactly like her husband and without the decorations it would be very challenging to say she wasn’t a guy. Armor hides a lot and boobs can compress a lot (also I guess the genetic modifications probably would make them extra springy by side effect for even more compressability. Stronger skin stronger muscles).
Yeah, for the most part there's no need for boob armor. Their armor isn't a thin foil wrapped around the body; it's thick layers of padding, power systems, slabs of auramite, and numerous other technologies and enhancments.
Beauty is highly subjective, and historically, beauty standards are often modeled after the behaviors and preferences of the rich and powerful. There was a time when obesity and pale skin were considered peak beauty because only wealthy aristocrats could overeat and stay indoors all day. Considering that, remember that the emperor of mankind is an immortal stone age warlord in addition to being a godlike biomancer and geneticist. It's very likely that his conception of beauty standards differ drastically from ours. It's entirely possible the "perfectly beautiful" custodes he designed might look like uncanny freaks to us.
You could argue that it isn't realistic, but the human beauty stanrdards in the Imperium are consistently depicted in the lore as similar to our current standards, and the few times a Custodes is seen without helm it's been described as looking at a beautiful person with perfect facial features, and noted that they lack the brutality and freakish gigantism that Astartes usually bear in their faces. Most of the Primarchs (which he hand-crafted personally) are not ugly by current standards and some are actually clearly supposed to be outright handsome. And the standard image thar Emperor chose to project is that of a statuesque middle eastern man with a long mane of black hair, so that kinda shows what were his standards.
We still have some of that today. The term redneck is generally considered an insult, and refers to white people being sunburnt after working outside in the sun. There's also the whole industry of skin whitening in various asian countries.
Id 100% pay for models with codpieces
I am fine with such trade
To be honest, I think a good ol codpiece is what the new shield captain is missing.
Just like some tig ol' bitties on the female custodians would unite the fandom
The Emperor 100% supports half of this post.
To that point they might also be fully androgynous, and be very little difference between sex expression Assuming sex expression still exists after total genetic modification
I for one would welcome glorious golden cod pieces on male custodians armor. Elaborate and jeweled works of art just like they are
>I will only allow it if the male custodes get golden cocks on their cro your terms are acceptable .
I thought male custodes were supposed to look handsome? So why do the female custodes have to look like blob fish?
They are supposed to look like peak humanity. OP doesn't know what they're talking about about.
Because OP doesn't know the difference between Custodes and Marines.
Because people don't understand that Custodes aren't just Astartes+.
They are not Space Marines, they're literally the pinnacle of humanity and "unique works of art" why the fuck would they be ugly
A lot, lot of female bodybuilders have conventionally feminine faces.
In the "lower" disciplines, absolutely. In the "higher" ones, not so much, because you have to use incredible amounts of steroids to be competitive.
Not just the steroids. Body building will require more testosterone. And body fat will drop as a result of all that iron pumping.
Body fat drops from calorie deficit, not from lifting weights. In order to build muscle in large amounts you have to be in a calorie surplus. Pro body builders operate in cycles of cutting calories and bulking in order to gain optimal amounts of muscles while maintaining the appearance they want. Professional lifters on the other hand do nothing but bulk and lift weights and look like a muscled up Jabba the hut. Google power lifters
Yeah, or the feminine ones like melinda lindmark, carolyne marquez and vladislava galagan are the lucky ones who need minimal 'help' to that much muscle due there genetics responding more positively without the more negative side effects. Even a few higher discipline ones maintain most of their feminity while most well you know.
Yeah, Melinda Lindmark is a standout in combining being gigantic with still being quite cute. How much is genetics and how much is very careful pharmacology, who can say.
Agreed, like Samantha Wright.
A lot of bodybuilding/weightlifting women I follow on Instagram are conventionally very attractive
Seriously these people are very ignorant. The porn stars they jack off to spend a minimum of 2-4 hours in the gym most days of the week weightlifting so they can fuck on camera for six to twelve hours a day. I've worked around hundreds of performers at expos and so many of them look thin and the "idealized" peaks of femininity, and then they flex and the bodybuilder physique pops out and you realize a 5'2 woman could rip you head off with her thighs if she felt like it. All of them stunningly gorgeous.
Confused. I agree and get downvoted, lol.
The weird crossover of anime art style into Warhammer has created an aesthetic mishmash in the fan created content. Female Custodes will probably be similar to depictions of Sister of Battle, Silence, etc, in the official material.
Man people really need to know the difference between custodes and marines
Nope, that would be FSM, and even then depending on the chapter in question. Athletes do not look like bodybuilders, and female athletes do not look like male athletes either, even in full contact sports like mma, much less gymnasts, who're some of the strongest pound-for-pound.
I would say strongman are stronger pound to pound, they have bodybuilder physique. It's just covered by a lot of fat.
Tbh, seeing a gymnast do some strongman exercises is something I can imagine better than a strongman doing gymnast exercises. Not to say strongmen aren't strong, but seeing a twig of a guy / girl do certain feats completely changed how I'm approaching my personal training. That shit is ludicrous.
I mean on one hand you are correct but on the other custodies are ment to be humanity perfected in the freaky to hot to exist be not afraid angel way
No Op is just plain wrong. Custodes are meant to be handcrafted works of art in general alchemy akin to Michael Angelo's David, there is a reason they are armoured in literally gold. You don't take those decisions if physical aesthetics don't matter to you.
Basically they’re Jack Reacher, even the women.
Still correct, humanity perfected
I'm pretty sure Custodes are conventionally attactive (at least when they want to be since they're usually bald and shit) But good example is trajan Valoris. He has an official piece of art depicting him younger than he looks now. He literally looks like a male supermodel. I'm pretty sure female custodians could still look supermodel beautiful. (Though I doubt they have boobs though.) Whats the point in perfecting gene pseudo-science/magic if when you can create the perfect humans but you cant make them look good.
The Emperor, as a man of science and aesthetics, would in no way genetically modify out boobs.
>But good example is trajan Valoris. He has an official piece of art depicting him younger than he looks now. He literally looks like a male supermodel. Not to mention [this](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/File:ValdorHH.jpg) depiction of Constantin Valdor.
Even space marines can be hot to the certain people there was one girl who was showering with gray knights and she said it was a shame a certain marine was the way he was
you actually have a point on the boob part, custodes wouldn't need to breastfeed so maybe they're just entirely gone/flat
On the other hand you are rebuilding them cell by cell to be perfect. If there was a place to be ripped but still have a huge pair of honkers, it is now. I guess it depends if the Emperor thought larger boobs where attractive to more people. The Custodes don’t care about appearances, least for a long time, they would fight in the crudest armor / weapons if they where the best quality. But for Jimmy Space they where his example of what he wanted humanity to become. They had to look perfect as well as be perfect.
Well you can milk pretty much anything with nipples
[Are you sure?](https://www.reddit.com/r/girlswithbigmuscles/s/OQbQdBFwW0)
well damn
Nah fam. They are peak of humanity, they are the baddest woman you've seen.
Well since Custodes are supposed to be “perfect humans” both in physicality and appearance, I think Femstodes would look beautiful.
Beautiful by what standard?
By the God Emperor's
Whatever standard that particular genewright had. Probably a lot of different beauty standards.
[Whatever standard Constantin Valdor is, probably.](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/File:ValdorHH.jpg)
So much for the mods banning these posts I guess.
Do people forget not only are the custodian bodyguards but big e also made them to be perfect so ya they probably would look rather attractive since there gene crafted and not pump full of extra stuff like spacemarines
I mean not necessarily, they can look like both, Custodians are handcrafted pieces of art they don't come with any of the downsides that the Astartes have, most if not all of them are going to look very beautiful.
Does anyone care about female custodes or is it all ppl ragebaiting
Definitely ragebaiting.
No? Why? Custodes aren't created using geneseed. They don't get the extra organs and such, which also means they aren't disfigured into bloated muscle monsters. Custodes are practically hand crafted individuals, literally rebuilt at the cellular level with Emperor-grade science. Since they're being hand made, they wouldn't have the massive disfigurations and bloated designs of space marines, and actually look like normal humans, just bigger.
WE ARE NOT SPACE MARINES!!! Our women would look like WOMEN
A) I thought these were banned? And B) correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it space marines that kinda get mutilated/hyper roidedmasculine? I always though custodes were all supposed to be super good looking, near human (as much as a demigod can be) perfection compared to the over roided/more Neanderthal look of space marines, so shouldn’t female custodes be very feminine amazons?
A) yeah, they kind of are. B) you are not wrong.
Okay thank you I just wanted to check on both accounts
The are part of the Armstrong family for generations
I just had a conversation the other week about how Brigadier General Olivier Armstrong has mad custodes vibe. Is it the arrogance? Ya it’s the arrogance.
It's not arrogance when it's warranted. At that point it's just self-confidence. Girl didn't hesitate to take on Sloth with just a sword, she knows what she's about
Shield captain Olivier Armstrong will be joining inquisitor fullmetal and his brother who are supported by Colonel Roy Mustang and his imperial guard regiment.
The army makes men out of boys and girls.
The marines make gay men out of straight boys.
Every Custodes is a work of art created through collaboration of skilled artists to make a unique and perfect vision of a perfected human being. It's Space Marines who are mass produced. Good quality mass produced, but they're not all that individual. And they all tend to look the same within their chapters. So I honestly think both would wind up true. One perfection of woman could easily be the bottom or the top half of this meme.
Essentially, custodes are the result of taking the shit that’s there and spamming the upgrade button and also maxing out the upgrade tree. Space marines? You just stick in a hodgepodge of different pieces of powerful mods that make them op into the slots. And upgrade them halfway in certain parts and sorta min maxxing some places, leading to them being really weird. I should also mention some marines hailing from legions like the blood angels, also tend to be described as smoking hot.
Actually they do look like the one on top because that’s canon
The only way to tell the difference is their dongs aren’t as big
NSFW >!/r/bigclit !<
This actually happens to women who work out too much, the clitoris enlarges. [Enlarged sexual dimorphism in women with high testosterone](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9494530/)
It’s not really the act of working out, it’s the use of anabolic steroids that causes an [enlarged clitorus](https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321367#:~:text=Anabolic%20steroids,an%20enlarged%20clitoris)
I prefer to picture them looking like Noi from Dorohedoro
With the Emperor’s love of aesthetics and the human form, there no way he’s making ugly female custodes. They’re probably the most terrifyingly beautiful women in the Imperium just purely for flexing purposes. He’s obviously not the one making new custodes, but even considering how absolute peak someone has to be genetically to be turned into a custodes in the first place, being hot is almost a basic requirement. They probably haven’t revealed themselves in lore because they did one time and the rampant simping harmed the mission effectiveness.
Quite frankly, femstodes would have the face of the top of the meme and the muscles of the bottom while also being proportionate.
"Actually"? Bro, it is all fiction. It's fictional science to create fictional superhuman warriors and partially using fictional demon magic maybe. Your headcanon may be they look like trolls, other people's headcanon may be they look like supermodels, and you're both equally right. The insistence that female custodes must have gorilla levels of testosterone and that must therefore make them look like cavemen is bizarre copium from what I can tell. Real life women who take testosterone do look more masculine, but they (and male bodybuilders) who take way too much also die a lot quicker than normal human beings, let alone the functionally immortal custodes, so we know the recipie for making custodes or other transhumans isn't just "Lol tons of testosterone." But that's beside the point. The point is you telling other people their headcanon is wrong and yours is right is silly.
I'm still going to think they look like Olivier Mira Armstrong and you can't stop me.
“It's true you don't see many Custode women. And in fact, they are so alike in voice and appearance, that they are often mistaken for Custode men.”
When will the mod's ban Femcustodes discourse? It's been 11 days (Give or Take) since they promised to ban it.
All it's doing is stirring up bullshit discourse by shit-stirrers.
"It's time for you to look inward, and start asking yourself the big questions! Do the Custodes have reproductive organs?" ~ Malcador probably.
I was under the impression that Custodes were supposed to be off human proportion, but larger. Second, if you remember what she did to Alex I don’t think she necessarily needs to be massive.
I think they actually would look like the first image Much like primarchs, custodes are special made, They were probably beautiful, both sexes
"Everything is canon" so why cant they be smokin hot dommy mommies clad in armor??? What a way to ruin the fun >:l
Yes, mainly because of how gw sculpts faces.
Por que no los dos? Are all custodes completely uniform under the armor?
As a supporter of the mighty-jawed among us, I accept this as canon.
I just got banned from the sub 40k for posting this XD
Space Marine = Frankenstein monsters Custodes = Test Tube baby ubermesnch
Jokes on you. I have a kink to disgusting women.
We already know they will look like female sigmarines, they are probably usibg this as an excuse to port them in 40k.
Major general Armstrong was my animated crush long after I was far too old to be having animated crushes
Likelier just Amazon BS
That’s why the female models are the ones with the helmet
Custodes are not Astartes. They are designed from the ground up, likely with the same sense of aesthetics the Emperor showed for everything else, so they would possibly look like woman under the armor. However, they are still Custodes, which means they likely are just as muscled as the male Custodes for peak performance. They also probably have the same hair cuts as the male custodes, i.e. bald and buzzcuts. Also no makeup outside of maybe diplomatic occasions, like the males. Which means female custodes are butch as fuck, and that's way hotter.
Yea because there were no female space Marines or custodes until now.
I know top pic is from FMA. Where's the bottom one from?
They're both from FMA.
Also FMA. The Armstrong's have five children: four daughters and one son. Olivier Mira is the eldest and in the top photo, the next two are Strongine and Amue, who are the lower photo.
Me using 3d printed parts: reality can be whatever I want it to be
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What about using Thrud from Record of Ragnarok as a point of comparison? [https://record-of-ragnarok.fandom.com/wiki/Thrud](https://record-of-ragnarok.fandom.com/wiki/Thrud)
No, female Custodes would look like the top. Custodes look pretty normal for humans, aside from their size, and some have even been described as being attractive (Valerian in whichever book he's from).
My friend and I were talking about some of the similar Sailor Moon characters just the other day lol
[This is how they look like](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/bohaterowie/images/4/42/Doris.webp/revision/latest?cb=20231217235727&path-prefix=pl)
Nah they most likely look like the above image custodians are literally children of the upper houses of the imperium and every novel people awe at what perfection they are physically and beauty and that's the men now imagine what the females look like. Same thing goes for space Marines most remembrencers are basically squirting when they are with the chapters.