Adeptus Custodes Officially Include Women

[Noserenda]

Interestingly there are reports on FB that the fluff section mentions Custodes of both genders as does the name generator. Though its not been mentioned by anyone im confident has the book. I know a few of those folk read this forum and might be able to confirm? 

 

 

 

=][= ADMINISTRATOR NOTE =][=

 

Note that this topic was originally about the possibility of females now being included in the Adeptus Custodes. A similar topic was started in the News, Rumors, and Board Announcements forum. The topics were merged and the title changed, reflecting the definite nature of the change.

Edited April 15 by Brother Tyler
Added Administrator Note

[TheMawr]

12 minutes ago, Noserenda said:

Interestingly there are reports on FB that the fluff section mentions Custodes of both genders as does the name generator. Though its not been mentioned by anyone im confident has the book. I know a few of those folk read this forum and might be able to confirm? 

 

Sure the name generator (as well as any female reference) isnt just about sisters of silence ?

[Noserenda]

18 minutes ago, TheMawr said:

 

Sure the name generator (as well as any female reference) isnt just about sisters of silence ?

The quoted context is definitely a Custode, and they have separate name generators i assume given their entirely different naming schemes. Some people have screenshotted GMGs video but its too tiny/low res for my old man eyes :D 

[DemonGSides]

I'd be fine with a custodes expansion including lady custodes. I don't think there's any reason against it that makes practical sense. But it also feels like Sisters of Silence really already fill that role; are we gonna get some Brothers of Silence?  That could be cool, I guess?

[Doghouse]

1 hour ago, Noserenda said:

Interestingly there are reports on FB that the fluff section mentions Custodes of both genders as does the name generator. Though its not been mentioned by anyone im confident has the book. I know a few of those folk read this forum and might be able to confirm? 

 

AD-B suggested female Custodes, I seem to recall the answer being that since there were no female Custodes models it wasn't made a thing at the time. I think it was when he was writing Master of Mankind.

 

[TrawlingCleaner]

=][= I've split this off into a separate thread to make moderation easier. Remember to keep this civil folks =][=

[TheMawr]

Definitely would be behind it too. We are talking about babysteps on one of my main gripes with the setting here ;)

 

Its mostly that it suprises me, and the suprise has less to do with gender in general, and more to do with the fact that like so many complains here echo.. it doesnt really look as if GW has some real plans for (40k) custodes. And such a thing sounds more like.. they actually do have plans, it sounds like a step toward something planned. But maybe Im reading too much into it.

 

But in contrary to someone above mentioned, I do/did think custodes can be folded somewhere.. and I even do/did think its a good chance they might. But that somewhere isnt really here yet. ( a more developed Imperial agents faction.) like the rogue trader image with the hierarchy ( when Arbites where the other Talon of the emperor.. not sisters of silence.)

 

 

edit : some references to other posts are from when I posted this as a reply in another topic... but I do think it still makes sense to most responding here what I talk about.

Edited April 13 by TheMawr

[Zoatibix]

This was the quote I found from a few years back.

 

So this isn’t a retcon but just a confirmation if true.

 

I’m all for it. The female Stormcast line benefits from the extra design room this has allowed the range.

 

Plus, if anyone wants to officially play genetically modified super-soldiers, now they can. 
 

I mean, when I started AC never left Terra, now they wear different colours of armour for their totally-not-a-chapter and have a galaxy spanning spy network. They’re pretty much Space Marines++ at this point. 
 

As to Brothers of Silence. I think that’s a cultural thing that the SoS only recruits females.  Males possibly get sent to Culexus Temple? 
 

@TheMawr after what they did to my armies in AoS, it would not surprise me if we ended up with either two distinct lines for HH and 40K Custodes, or one version of them gets sent to Legends.

 

Of course, I would prefer to see them get full plastic glow-up (Including a rescale and female models) based in HH but transferable to 40K.

 

 

Edited April 13 by Zoatibix
Added reply

[Nephaston]

 

The reference to terrain nobles giving a son for evaluation has also changed to "child"

 

Woman enjoyers will celebrate their new 9ft tall additions.

[lansalt]

This would have been okay if GW did it from the start when they introduced the current versions of Custodes and SoS in Visions of Heresy. Now it just seems like another case of a part of GW not caring about all the stablished work done by others to define previous characters and factions. 
I won't dewell on the motivation behind this change, because for me it doesn't matter if it's well intentioned or cynical corporate compliance, it just annoys me that they keep breaking and retconning existing lore that was fine and consistent when there's plenty of alternatives they could explore. I hope at least we get an explanation about why the Custodes decided to start recruiting girls in the Indomitus Era, and they don't retcon it always been like the case.

Otherwise they just threw away all the great characterization done by Chris Wraight in the Watchers of the Throne books to make Custodes and SoS unique in their own ways.

 

[Lord Marshal]

Well they allowed a Squat in, so why not women? 

[SvenIronhand]

Good.

 

[Robbienw]

Odd change.  Very jarring, seems unnecessary.  Perhaps they will also add men to the Sisters of Silence 

[phandaal]

32 minutes ago, Robbienw said:

Odd change.  Very jarring, seems unnecessary.  Perhaps they will also add men to the Sisters of Silence 

 

Indeed. Surely the addition goes both ways, right?

 

They'll be called the... Misters of Silence. 

[Marshal Rohr]

Somehow, women returned. 

[Remain_Indoors]

1 hour ago, lansalt said:

 

Otherwise they just threw away all the great characterization done by Chris Wraight in the Watchers of the Throne books to make Custodes and SoS unique in their own ways.

 

Sorry but how do female Custards invalidate the characterization of the Sisters and Custodes in any book? Both are still their own thing. And in the case of the Custodes they’re so genehanced and engineered, they barely count as human. So their sex is largely irrelevant.

[lansalt]

6 minutes ago, Marshal Rohr said:

Somehow, women returned. 

 

*tsundere thoughtmark hand sings*

[Nephaston]

Custodes being a boys Club previously can be chalked up to writers just forgetting women exist, unlike marines which specifically go "no girls allowed". Now just like with guard someone has gone "Right! Women! I heard of those!"

 

Plus now that custodes fill the niche of egalitarian transhuman fighters, marines can remain the "no gurlz " club.

[Crimson Longinus]

This certainly is a welcome development. And not technically even a retcon, not that I cared if it was.

 

I hope there will be some female Custodian head bits to accompany this. 

[SvenIronhand]

Also, Custodes are not Blanks. They are psychically dim and resistant to what WHFB would call magic, but not Blanks — that's different. 

[lansalt]

2 minutes ago, Remain_Indoors said:

Sorry but how do female Custards invalidate the characterization of the Sisters and Custodes in any book?

Once the Talons were set up as dual segregated organizations, the authors went a long way to give them their own gender coded background and themes.
Custodes are part of the Byzantium/Greece/Alexander the Great's references that surround the Emperor, with their Companions and being bonded to him. Meanwhile, Sisters of Silence are unapproachable fully human and self-aware warrior women that willingly follow the Emperor and come originally from the Moon (see Artemis) .
Both were supposed to work together, but still be separate.

And there's also the theme of all those imperial transhumans not being a real next step of humanity's evolution, so they shouldn't have even the idea of being able to have children. That's also a plot point in the Fabious Bile series and his attempt to create a new humanity.

[Wormwoods]

Good! Unless lady Custodes somehow have models that don't repel me physically -I'm sorry, I just can't handle how Custodes look - I will continue to never play the damn things, but GW being less weird about women would be nice. 

[Remain_Indoors]

1 minute ago, lansalt said:

Once the Talons were set up as dual segregated organizations, the authors went a long way to give them their own gender coded background and themes.
Custodes are part of the Byzantium/Greece/Alexander the Great's references that surround the Emperor, with their Companions and being bonded to him. Meanwhile, Sisters of Silence are unapproachable fully human and self-aware warrior women that willingly follow the Emperor and come originally from the Moon (see Artemis) .
Both were supposed to work together, but still be separate.

And there's also the theme of all those imperial transhumans not being a real next step of humanity's evolution, so they shouldn't have even the idea of being able to have children. That's also a plot point in the Fabious Bile series and his attempt to create a new humanity.

And it literally changes none of that. Custodes are still bonded to the Emperor and his companions. Sisters of silence remain fully human, self-aware warrior women from the Moon. They remain separate.

Sorry I’m just not seeing the issue. A female Custode is not a Sister of Silence, and a Sister of Silence is not a female Custode.

 

I haven’t got the foggiest idea why you feel there’s an issue about having children? Custodes are literally crafted cell by cell, genehanced and engineered. Like I said, by that point any genitals are largely decorative.

[Kastor Krieg]

Expanded upon by Valrak in the vid below, but tl;dr - there's a Custode, her name is Kesh and she's being referenced by female pronouns. 

There's a female Custodes. It's canon.
 

 

Edited April 14 by Captain Idaho
Unnecessary comment removed

[Marshal Valkenhayn]

Look how healthy the discussion we're having about this is.

 

This sucks. The lore change sucks, the vitriol it will spawn sucks, everything about it is so...exhausting. I honestly didn't think the Custodes book could be any worse than its rules, and I was wrong. Think I'll leave the forum for another year or so, nothing good is coming of this.