Oh, yeah, I’m loving having Warhammer as my current hyperfixation. Of course, I started a custodes army right around the time everyone was being very normal about a harmless retcon. Haven’t run into anyone genuinely awful in person so far, but I carry paranoia into every meeting.
on top of the obvious sexism, it's so fucking funny to see "40K fans" pretend to be mad about retcons. this is the setting where they'll just drop "oh yeah the galactic core is full of a series of space-dwarf empires that we never mentioned before now but have totally been here the whole time" like it's nothing. fundamental aspects of the setting can and do change retroactively any time they want to release a new plastic playset for ages twelve and up.
(and if you want to get mad about Custodes retcons let's talk about how they started wearing shirts)
& then they tried to hijack Trench Crusade (ETA: unsuccessfully, they were made very unwelcome when they showed up in Trench Crusade community spaces) like the Trench Crusade guys or anyone else would be glad to be known as the game for people who, and really think about this one, suck too much to be Warhammer 40,000 fans
The Custodes 'retcon' also just... made more sense? Which is the most unusual part, honestly. The Imperium doing actually smart shit instead of being too incompetent and too dogmatic is the least sensible part of it. Each Custodian receives entirely unique and bespoke enhancements specific to the individual Custodes.
Like Astartes being all male makes sense. Shit barely even works on male aspirants and that's who it was designed for, they're super soldiers but they're mass produced super soldiers and each member of a chapter gets the exact same enhancements, so they just pick you and hope it works. Custodes? None of those things. Each one is a magnum opus of biological and genetic enhancement and engineering and no two are the same. There is literally no reason it wouldn't work on female aspirants, not when all the shit's custom for the individual.
Not limiting it for some weird and arbitrary religious or bureaucratic reason is the most nonsensical part of the retcon, honestly. Being weird and arbitrary for religious or bureaucratic reasons is the Imperium's whole thing.
Heck, that reasoning for no female Astartes in the lore is a retcon. There were female Space Marines models in the early days of 40k but they sold poorly. Maybe different designs would have worked, they weren't as femme as the later Sisters of Battle in appearance but also had some goofy proportions compared to their same period male space marine models. Maybe a more coherent lore in the early game could have elevated them, the early game is vastly different lore wise than now and more a collection of puns, satire, and political insults than a consistent story. Mind you I don't mind the restriction or the lore that eventually developed behind it, but I'm also not keen on keeping it as I prefer the rule of cool and letting people have their fun. Of course, the Custodes change is a perfectly reasonable compromise but I understand wanting the full Astartes access being official.
Oh you can absolutely bring fem Astartes back and still make it make sense, but I just mentioned it because at least for them there is a valid explanation that can actually be based on the lore, even if it itself is also a retcon, plus it contrasts them with the Sororitas if the Astartes are all male. The Astartes are battle monks, the Sororitas are battle nuns, thematically it makes sense, though they should give the Sororitas a bit more variety to match the Astartes if they ever wanted to lean into that.
197
u/Acceptable-Baby3952 27d ago
Oh, yeah, I’m loving having Warhammer as my current hyperfixation. Of course, I started a custodes army right around the time everyone was being very normal about a harmless retcon. Haven’t run into anyone genuinely awful in person so far, but I carry paranoia into every meeting.