Adeptus Custodes Officially Include Women

[Tokugawa]

If GW could find way to properly represent female ork, necron, kroot, admech and non-Slaanesh chaos on models, without making customers feel "it's ugly. I don't wanna buy it" on first glance, why not do it? 

 

Female marines is another topic on another level. I won't buy it.

[Lay]

The biggest retcon happening to custodes was them getting a codex. Therefore, the enlightened view is refusing to accept them as an army in the first place

[cheywood]

Female custodes, female space marines, feminine orks. Whatever works, it makes no real difference to me. But I hope the novels and lore actually address this. We have numerous books mentioning exclusively male custodes and just retconning that as though custodes have always been men and women is silly. It would be easy to write about the custodes deciding to use women because of their numbers being depleted now that they’re off crusading and stabbing things away from Terra. The Imperium’s population isn’t in a great way genetically these days, one can imagine, and it’s much harder to find viable candidates, so women (well, girls) are being utilized despite a slightly higher failure rate on account of hormonal differences or whatever. I like gender equality, I hate lazy retcons. But my guess is they won’t really address it. 

[Timberley]

Well, if it helps GW sell more models and attract fans that'll be here for the 30+ years that some of us have been collecting, then why not?  At the end of the day, lore is there to help them sell miniatures, not be an established setting.  Lore changes will happen because GW thinks that doing so will help their bottom line.  If it doesn't, then I wonder about the wisdom. 

 

At least my Adeptus Frateris will become more likely (I've been converting the AoS models for it)!  Plus, remember, all are equal to the Master of Mankind - all can be sent to fight and die in His name so that humanity can exist for another few thousand years.  Whilst Custodians might be the pinnacle of science, they're not immortal and can be ripped apart by that Daemon Prince, or C'Tan, or Orbital Bombardment, or Titan, or whatever.

Edited April 14 by Timberley
Point expansion

[Nephaston]

2 hours ago, Kastor Krieg said:

Nah, don't think there's any danger of that, different unit concepts altogether. I'd love to see female-coded minis for Custodes themselves though, probably with little to no difference in armour shape / volume, just a female helmetless head and better proportions with newer design 

Especially with the direction the codex seems to have I wouldn't mind a combined kit of custodians and sisters to play up their teamwork and how one of each interplays with the other, kind of how Crusader squads are a combo of marine and scout.

 

Maybe for kill team.

[torcathmk2]

There is female representation in miniatures available for the Imperial Guard, Tau, Eldar, Dark Eldar, Genestealer Cult, Sisters of Battle, Sisters of Silence, Inquisition, Assassins, Chaos and the Votann. It's hardly tokenism either with many of them being powerful leaders in lore and on the table top. Why overturn twenty plus years of lore for the Custodes? Who is this change for?

[Vazzy]

Honestly this isn’t a big deal to me. Nothing in canon has ever said there couldn’t be. I think it’s a cool concept but it does feel very undersold which is kinda weird which makes me wonder if it was a typo or misprint but either way not an issue for me. 
 

if they change marines however I would be up in arms. 

[Sete]

The God Emperor of Mankind is an Equal Opportunity Employer. 

 

This literally has zero impact in the custodes lore. 

 

If its bothering you a fair amount, take a step back and re-evaluate your relationship with the hobby, and life in general. 

 

 

 

Edited April 14 by Sete

[lansalt]

6 minutes ago, Nephaston said:

a combined kit of custodians and sisters to play up their teamwork and how one of each interplays with the other, kind of how Crusader squads are a combo of marine and scout.

Agreed. This is how it should have been from the start in the game, but I think GW wanted to keep SoS as separate, and even gave them a lot of units without models in 30k, but finally half-assed it leaving them with a small range and weak rules.

[Joe]

I certainly think it's an interesting change, and certainly one that isn't without merit - the idea having been floated around for nearly a decade at least, as people have otherwise mentioned (i.e. Master of Mankind by ADB). I do think a random codex blurb wasn't necessarily the best place to introduce it, however the flipside to that is it just treats it as business as usual rather than making a mountain out of it, which is earnestly fine.

 

That said, I can see the thread already turning into a race to the bottom. Having vivid flashbacks to the "poor hill to die on" comment I made r.e. some of the questionable remarks fraters left regarding Games Workshop's inclusion statement they put out a few years ago.

[Joe]

8 minutes ago, lansalt said:

Agreed. This is how it should have been from the start in the game, but I think GW wanted to keep SoS as separate, and even gave them a lot of units without models in 30k, but finally half-assed it leaving them with a small range and weak rules.

 

It was amusing watching people assume they'd be the Mystery Army Release on the Heresy Roadmap for 24/25 when the faction is a niche within a niche. I do look forward to seeing the resin upgrades / bikes when they eventually receive them, though.

[Triszin]

Look.

 

My take.

It isn't a retcon.

 

 

The universe is big. As we all know, so big infact. "New" information/tech or minis have always existed.

 

It's just that no one bothered to ask.(which is perfectly in line with the imperium)

 

Or no one thought to try.

(Which is also inline with the imperium)

 

We now know custodes aren't 100% swole oil dudes running around in Jorts challenging harlequins to dance offs.

 

 

It's a nice new piece of lore.

 

Actually, lady custodes referenced earlier

 

Figures clustered around the craft’s landing legs, where the ship’s great metal claws gripped the radiation-soaked dust of the wasteland. These men and women were plated in the same gold as the ship, rendered upon their bodies with painstaking artistry. My father’s guardians, Sanguinius thought. And what a thought it was, not only that a being such as his father required guardians, but that he had a father at all. -echoes of eternity

Edited April 14 by Triszin

[Robbienw]

Well it does have an impact.  It’s a significant retcon. It was previously stated that custodes are recruited as infant male children from the Terran Noble houses, in earlier Codices.

 

 

[Nephaston]

3 minutes ago, Triszin said:

We now know custodes aren't 100% swole oil dudes running around in Jorts challenging harlequins to dance offs.

I for one welcome our 50/50 swole oil gals and guys running around in Jorts challenging harlequins to dance offs.

 

Jortamite is a 1+ armour save right?

[Sete]

Infant sons. Now its infant offspring. 

And now you have a custodes that was born female and was genetically handcrafted to be a transhuman warrior. 

 

Their role didn't change, their abilities didn't change, their gear didn't change.

 

 “I crafted every single one of you by hand. Each a symbol of perfection, a diplomat, a master of the arts, a leader and a beacon of what humanity might one day become” 

*no women included in the peak of humanity

 

Ahh I see I missed the small print! 

 

Edited April 14 by Sete

[Doghouse]

I think it's fine, it's an addition to their lore and beyond adding maybe some resin bare heads it's not really going to invalidate anyone's armies which is always a good thing.

 

 

[RedFox]

Does it make sense lore wise?

[Sete]

“I crafted every single one of you by hand. Each a symbol of perfection, a diplomat, a master of the arts, a leader and a beacon of what humanity might one day become” 

 

 

 

 

 

[Triszin]

Just now, RedFox said:

Does it make sense lore wise?

Lore wise it makes sense.

 

Custodes are refined at such a level that anyone can become it.

[Sete]

What does the gender of a transhuman warrior matter? Why can't it be a female? 

Lorewise they are handcrafted correct? So if an infant female has the right requisites, it too shall serve the Master of Mankind. Wasting that resource would be heresy correct? 

 

 

Edited April 14 by Sete

[Tokugawa]

Look, suddenly few people are discussing about how bad the custodes codex is designed and how weak their rules are.

[Nephaston]

I think I typed this in the other thread already, but since we're having double topic time anyway;

Custodes being an all boys club reads to me as the typical "the writer didn't think much beyond it and without malice just wrote it like that", just how a good chunk of guard fluff defaulted to the sausage fest without even intentionally and explicitly excluding women. This is in contrast to marine fluff, where it's an explicit "no girls allowed" deal.

 

This boils down to GW internally asking themselves if there is a reason why womanstodes weren't a thing and concluding they have no good reason. While also earning a few brownie points here, let's not assume ultimate altruism here.

Plus, with the niche of egalitarian transhuman fighters now covered by custodes we won't need womarines and keep their globules cootie free.

I think I typed this in the other thread already, but since we're having double topic time anyway;

Custodes being an all boys club reads to me as the typical "the writer didn't think much beyond it and without malice just wrote it like that", just how a good chunk of guard fluff defaulted to the sausage fest without even intentionally and explicitly excluding women. This is in contrast to marine fluff, where it's an explicit "no girls allowed" deal.

 

This boils down to GW internally asking themselves if there is a reason why womanstodes weren't a thing and concluding they have no good reason. While also earning a few brownie points here, let's not assume ultimate altruism here.

Plus, with the niche of egalitarian transhuman fighters now covered by custodes we won't need womarines and keep their globules cootie free.

[Rain]

1 minute ago, Tokugawa said:

Look, suddenly few people are discussing about how bad the custodes codex is designed and how weak their rules are.

“Just as planned”

 

-Codex writer Alan Pharius.

[MagicHat]

I am reminded of the first knight codex releasing and it was just men that were allowed to be pilots. 

And then they realized how silly that was and changed it for the second.

 

Obligatory "Would a female bio-engineered into a 9 feet hulk of muscle look different from the male bio-engineered 9 feet hulk of muscle?" Stormcast suggests they would I suppose.

 

Don't see any problem with it, but would prefer that SoS get more support before custodes do.

[Triszin]

=][= Mod voice =][=

 

Hello my fellow custodians.

Please keep it civil.

 

I appreciate the conversation here, and wish it to continue.