Warhammer: After 18 years, finally an end

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Azubah: Jun 5, 2007

My brain must be broke because I read that and nothing stood as "wrong" out until the tweets lol

# ? Apr 14, 2024 03:50

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# ? Jun 6, 2024 16:26

Angry Lobster: May 16, 2011; Served with honor
and some clarified butter.

I don't know what's funnier, Mia complaining about not getting free stuff or the other onlyfans people replying with their own nudes in the same thread as advertisment. And yes, the new custodes codex is awful rules-wise.

# ? Apr 14, 2024 07:40

Sanford: Jun 30, 2007; ...and rarely post!

Search YouTube for �female custodes� for videos of some of the reddest-faced men you�ve ever seen getting mad about space dolls.

Edit: the question I actually came to ask - do Warhammer crime/horror go in order or have a proper starting point? I quite fancy them and my normal approach is to just out loads on my Audible wish list and wait for them to come on sale.

Sanford fucked around with this message at 12:17 on Apr 14, 2024

# ? Apr 14, 2024 12:15

Bohemian Nights: Jul 14, 2006; When I wake up,
I look into the mirror
I can see a clearer, vision
I should start living today; Clapping Larry

Sanford posted:

Search YouTube for “female custodes” for videos of some of the reddest-faced men you’ve ever seen getting mad about space dolls.

Edit: the question I actually came to ask - do Warhammer crime/horror go in order or have a proper starting point? I quite fancy them and my normal approach is to just out loads on my Audible wish list and wait for them to come on sale.

I went fishing for Angry Dudes on reddit, and was pleasantly surprised to see most people being positive towards it, both in terms of lore and just looking forwards to having more toys to paint and play with.
Also seems like this is something ADB wanted to include in novels previously, but was shut down because GW didn't have any current or plans to run out female custodes minis at the time

I'm guessing this means that any kind of sequel to Watchers of the throne will probably include one (or several), which is cool

# ? Apr 14, 2024 14:34

Gravitas Shortfall: Jul 17, 2007; Utility is seven-eighths Proximity.

I found the Rogue Trader omnibus for free at a tiny library, is it any good?

# ? Apr 14, 2024 14:43

FPyat: Jan 17, 2020

Sanford posted:

Search YouTube for �female custodes� for videos of some of the reddest-faced men you�ve ever seen getting mad about space dolls.

Edit: the question I actually came to ask - do Warhammer crime/horror go in order or have a proper starting point? I quite fancy them and my normal approach is to just out loads on my Audible wish list and wait for them to come on sale.

The Vorbis Conspiracy sees characters from previous novels return for shorts.

# ? Apr 14, 2024 14:48

Blue Raider: Sep 2, 2006

People are gonna call them the golden girls and I support it

# ? Apr 14, 2024 14:50

Cooked Auto: Aug 4, 2007

Funny enough I've seen a bunch of photoshops for that.

Also that Mia tweet crossed my timeline and I was incredibly confused if it was honest or just a weird bait for clicks.

Bohemian Nights posted:

Also seems like this is something ADB wanted to include in novels previously, but was shut down because GW didn't have any current or plans to run out female custodes minis at the time

Apparently the reason why he was shot down was because all the models are male. :v:

https://old.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/aynlxa/its_international_womens_day_so_how_are_we/ei3rp64/

# ? Apr 14, 2024 16:24

Warden: Jan 16, 2020

The chuds are already losing their poo poo over this in social media and I am hooting and hollering.

I feel rather validated for dropping 80 euros on a big box of four Warbands for WHU this week.

# ? Apr 14, 2024 16:42

chainchompz: Jul 15, 2021; bark bark

Gravitas Shortfall posted:

I found the Rogue Trader omnibus for free at a tiny library, is it any good?

Yes.

Sanford posted:

Edit: the question I actually came to ask - do Warhammer crime/horror go in order or have a proper starting point? I quite fancy them and my normal approach is to just out loads on my Audible wish list and wait for them to come on sale.

I read them in publishing order.
Without giving anything away, there are a few recurring characters but if you read out of order you can still piece together things.

# ? Apr 14, 2024 17:41

Black Griffon: Mar 12, 2005; Now, in the quantum moment before the closure, when all become one. One moment left. One point of space and time.

I know who you are. You are destiny.

Half of me want ladymarines to come about through plot development, the other half wants them to be canonized through a throwaway sentence that implied they'd always been around because it would be funny.

# ? Apr 14, 2024 21:03

notaspy: Mar 22, 2009

Black Griffon posted:

Half of me want ladymarines to come about through plot development, the other half wants them to be canonized through a throwaway sentence that implied they'd always been around because it would be funny.

Could do both.

Cawl works out how to do it, he goes back to look at some baseline marines and notices that half of them have the same coding. Utterly confused he puts a little boy and a little girl in front of whomever selects aspirants and says "tell me what differences there are between these two" and the marine just looks back at him blankly.

# ? Apr 14, 2024 21:42

Libluini: May 18, 2012; I gravitated towards the Greens, eventually even joining the party itself.

The Linke is a party I grudgingly accept exists, but I've learned enough about DDR-history I can't bring myself to trust a party that was once the SED, a party leading the corrupt state apparatus ...; Grimey Drawer

Telsa Cola posted:

I dont think there was every any reall fluff on it but Terras location on the galaxy map is not where it should be.

No, that was always false. A lot of wargaming nerds just don't understand that galactic maps have no north, south or whatever. You turn them around all you like. So you have maps where the Orion Spur with Terra was in the lower right, and then other maps showing Terra in the upper left, and then the argument was Terra had been moved.

It was just a misunderstanding though.

As a sidenote, as someone who grew up with SF where "Terra is just Latin for Earth" was basically the norm, every time someone asks if Terra is Earth, I just get confused. Because to me, that's like asking "is Earth really Earth?"

# ? Apr 14, 2024 22:03

Black Griffon: Mar 12, 2005; Now, in the quantum moment before the closure, when all become one. One moment left. One point of space and time.

I know who you are. You are destiny.

notaspy posted:

Could do both.

Cawl works out how to do it, he goes back to look at some baseline marines and notices that half of them have the same coding. Utterly confused he puts a little boy and a little girl in front of whomever selects aspirants and says "tell me what differences there are between these two" and the marine just looks back at him blankly.

I know someone's posted before about their personal interpretation that astartes gender essentially has nothing to do with baseline human gender. It's already in the water, might as well just make it canon!

# ? Apr 14, 2024 23:16

Telsa Cola: Aug 19, 2011; No... this is all wrong... this whole operation has just gone completely sidewaysface

Black Griffon posted:

I know someone's posted before about their personal interpretation that astartes gender essentially has nothing to do with baseline human gender. It's already in the water, might as well just make it canon!

IMO Astartes are basically post gender outside of like the space wolves, the traditional masculine poo poo they do has more martial/religious tones then anything gender based.

So lady marines would be basically indistinguishable from regular marines because they would still be superhuman genetically engineered space monastic members

Telsa Cola fucked around with this message at 23:31 on Apr 14, 2024

# ? Apr 14, 2024 23:29

AnEdgelord: Dec 12, 2016

Telsa Cola posted:

IMO Astartes are basically post gender outside of like the space wolves, the traditional masculine poo poo they do has more martial/religious tones then anything gender based.

So lady marines would be basically indistinguishable from regular marines because they would still be superhuman genetically engineered space monastic members

this was always how I imagined it going with marines and women, the creation process is so invasive and so total that female aspirants are essentially forcibly gender transitioned by the process

# ? Apr 14, 2024 23:35

von Metternich: May 7, 2007; Why the hell not?

Syncopated posted:

Now you made me imagine a 40k campus novel. Could be set on Terra? And you could get a bunch of different characters in the faculty, one tech priest (engineering), regular priest(theology), etc. The english lit prof could be secretly recruiting for the Inquisition, the only nice and kind prof could turn out to be a heretic? Maybe demons or genestealers show up towards the middle so you get some bolter porn still?

Day of ascension, the Genestealer Cult/AdMech novel, takes place on an AdMech world that�s organized more like a university than a giant factory, with the different faculty fighting over the budget from the administration, it�s kinda fun

# ? Apr 15, 2024 01:02

Kylaer: Aug 4, 2007; I'm SURE walking around in a respirator at all times in an (even more) OPEN BIDENing society is definitely not a recipe for disaster and anyone that's not cool with getting harassed by CHUDs are cave dwellers. I've got good brain!

I wrote a thing. It's not Doc Eldar.

quote:

The sky was peaceful, a pale green backdrop to the scudding shapes of clouds. Not heavy enough for rain, nor with wind brisk enough to warn of a storm. She had always been one to appreciate the sky, and today's should have been perfect. Or rather, the sky itself was perfect, but the pain she felt when she tilted her head upward to stare at it marred the moment.

The pain was a reminder of what had nearly happened. And of what would, inevitably, happen in the future.

She'd gotten off lightly, all told. Some bruises where stubber bullets had impacted her armor. The pulled muscles and strained joints that accompanied the desperation of combat. A fracture of her left collarbone that she hadn't noticed until after the fight was over, and still couldn't recall how she'd acquired it. She certainly noticed it now, as she raised her face to the sky.

Just another cult. The kind Inquisitor Sheay and his warband had ended time after time. Sheay's far-reaching web of listeners and data-sifters had caught this one early, ferreting them out before they had grown much beyond the initial core of adherents. But one of those adherents had been a rogue psyker of uncommon power - perhaps a latent whose talent had been awoken by the cult's rituals, or simply supremely lucky to have avoided the attention of the Black Ships for so long. And now Sheay's time was ended, along with four others of the warband.

Two factors had kept the fight from ending in complete disaster. The quirk of genetics that had led to her name, and the presence of Brother Zophernes. The Astartes warrior had been grievously wounded, yet had not stopped killing until the last of the cultists was down, seeming to care nothing that his right arm was lying on the floor, nor that his intestines were sliding from the shattered ruin of his abdominal plating.

And so they were here, back to what should be considered safety, a populous, prosperous world under the protection of the Amrtaka Chapter, where Zophernes could be brought back to health, and where the survivors of Sheay's warband might find new roles with other inquisitors, those who had been on good terms with their deceased leader. Sans had no doubt that she would be offered a place in another's warband, given that she had been the one able to kill the cult's witch when even an Astartes had been held at bay and nearly killed by the man's psychic talent. Blank, blacksoul, pariah, null - she was without presence in the Warp, and so she was called Sans, and valued.

Servitors were bringing Zophernes down the lighter's ramp now, treading slowly as they maneuvered the oversized gurney on which he lay. He had spent much of the voyage in hibernation, awakening only when their vessel made orbit and preparations were begun to move him from the medicae suite. He was fully alert now, although he lay corpse-still, placing as few demands as possible on his ravaged body. Only his eyes moved, tracking the clouds above, and after a few moments the corners of his mouth lifted.

"Happy to see the sky?" Sans asked.

"More than you know, interrogator," he whispered. "I thought it unlikely I would see this sky again. I was born on this world." Zophernes' eyes flicked back and forth, and he moved his head fractionally. "Not...this city. I cannot remember the name of my home city, but I remember it was closer to the equator. The sky is a different shade there."

"Was it long ago?" She knew that Space Marines were destined to live until the day the Emperor called for their final effort, which might be centuries after their birth. Inquisitor Sheay had been old, too, well over a century, and had undergone multiple juvenant treatments; although he had been able to move and fight like a young man, there had been clues in his face, in the skin of his hands, and in his eyes of all the years he'd seen. There were no such clues to be found in Zophernes.

The Astartes considered this for several seconds. "Between three and four decades. I cannot be certain. Many of my memories from before my selection have faded."

Now it was Sans' turn to consider. "That's not a vast span of years. That's within a lifetime. You may have relatives still living here. Your parents may even still live."

Zophernes' face gave a twitch, a momentary expression that Sans couldn't read. "My apologies if I should not have mentioned this topic," she said. "I do not know the protocols and traditions of your Chapter in such matters."

"We are not forbidden to remember our families, nor to think of them," the Marine said, slowly, as if the words were fragile. "But we are not to dwell on those memories, and we are not to seek them out."

The Chapter bastion's gate opened before them, and serfs in Amrtaka livery moved forward to take the gurney from the servitors. "Walk in peace, interrogator," Zophernes said, and Sans knew that was her cue to go no further.

As she returned to the lighter, the flicker of expression that had crossed the Astartes' face replayed in her mind. She was not certain, but she thought it had been hope.

Her wounds were not severe enough to require that she stand down. And although Sheay was dead, he had been respected, and his name still carried some weight among the Ordos. She had resources - access to information chief among them, even information that the Amrtaka Chapter thought belonged only to itself.

Two days later, she knocked on the door of a hab-unit on the seventh floor of a sprawling block. She was not wearing the insignia of the Inquisition; she had selected the uniform of a midrank functionary of the Administratum, not so rarified that it would be outlandish to find her visiting a citizen, but neither so commonplace that she could be taken lightly.

The woman who opened the door was aged, as Sans had known she would be. Sans knew that she was, to be specific, seventy-four, that she was named Barsinis, that she had been widowed for slightly over two years, that she had spent her adult life working as a cargo coordinator, smoothing the passage of materials and manufactured goods into and out of the city by land, sea, and space, and that she still performed in this role, albeit with reduced hours due to her age. For Sans' purposes, none of these traits were particularly important.

Zophernes' mother stood with only a slight stoop, and her eyes were steady. She took in the details of Sans' uniform in a long glance, and gave a polite nod as a greeting. "I don't believe we've met," she said, "and that's not my department's colors on your sleeve. You have an official matter for me?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Then come in, please." Barsinis stepped back, leaving the door open, and Sans entered. The hab-unit was very small, not much larger than a voidship cabin; there was a nook with some cookware, a couch that likely doubled as a bed, a door that no doubt led to a sanitary chamber, and precious few square meters of floor space. Some of that was devoted to a stool and easel, on which was pinned a half-finished painting of a green-and-yellow flower.

Sans glanced around, taking in details in heartbeats as she'd become accustomed. More paintings on the walls, and picts as well - the paintings were mostly of colorful plants, but the picts were of people, immediately obvious as being family. She spotted one that was clearly old, the ink starting to discolor, showing Barsinis with her late husband and their four young children, three sons and a daughter, all wearing the bared-teeth grins of children who believe they're supposed to smile as hard as they can when the pict-taker calls. Another, much more recent, with the two older boys from the early picture, now grown to men but still recognizable. They stood with spouses and children of their own, flanking the now-elderly couple. The youngest boy and the girl were absent.

For barely a second, Sans focused on the childhood face of the boy who didn't return. Her eyes were keen, and her mind moreso. The geneseed had altered him, as it invariably did; no-one in the family had eyes of the color the Astartes now possessed, and the shape of his chin and jaw resembled those of his distant primarch rather than those of his kin, but those were unmistakably Zophernes' eyebrows, she felt no doubt about that.

"So," Barsinis said, "what brings a fourth-tier adept to my home?"

"Your family has given much in the service of humanity," Sans replied. "More than many are capable of."

Barsinis frowned slightly. "My children, you mean. I've never left this continent, much less this world. But all four of my children left, in service. Two came back with honor, one died with honor, and one -" her expression twisted, an echo of the emotion that Zophernes had expressed, but less well concealed. It was, undoubtedly, hope. "One...still serves, I pray."

The smile that Sans answered with was genuine. "Still serves, honored mother."

"They said." The muscles of Barsinis' throat were twitching hard. "They said we would not meet again. That returning to family is forbidden."

"You lost a child in the God-Emperor's service," Sans said, seeing the plan fall neatly into place. "Is there a memorial where their name is preserved? It is not forbidden for one of the Chapter to make respects to the fallen, and if others happen to be there at the same time, well, what a happy coincidence."

The old woman sat down hard on her couch, bracing her hands against her knees. "The Columns of Remembrance, in Aknel Park. Column seven, third tier, southwest facing. When?" There was a desperate edge to Barsinis' last word.

"How soon can the rest of your family gather?" Sans said, keeping her voice gentle.

"Three days. Maybe two - I'll tell them this is more important than anything."

"Let's say four days, then. Give them time to travel safely. At noon, four days from now?"

Barsinis rubbed a hand across her eyes. "Is this real? Truly?"

"Yes, honored mother, this is real. I owe Zophernes my life."

"Zophernes?" Barsinis looked momentarily unbalanced. "Oh, a Chapter name. A hero-name. Yes. Four days, at noon." She met Sans' gaze in a way that few could stand to do with a psychic blank. "Thank you, with all my heart."

-

The Columns of Remembrance stood perhaps twenty meters tall, connected by scaffolding that allowed visitors to climb and pay respects to those whose names were engraved on the stone. The columns were of some local stone, deep grey with flecks of pale yellow and red, each three meters thick. Sans followed respectfully behind Zophernes, who walked slowly, but without limping. He was still recovering, and much was yet unhealed, but he stood tall and straight, wearing the brilliantly-dyed tunic and trousers that were his Chapter's formalwear outside of armor. The right sleeve was rolled and pinned a hand's breadth below the shoulder, since a replacement arm would take time to be grown.

The Astartes had seen her intention immediately when she had spoken to him of visiting the memorial and bearing witness to the fallen. "You found my family," he said, in a tone just shy of accusatory.

"Yes." There was no point in lying. "Your father is dead. Two years ago, of natural causes. Your mother and older brothers live and will be paying their respects. You are not seeking them out. Nor did I seek them at your direction."

"That's splitting hairs," Zophernes had growled.

"If your Chapter wanted it forbidden to see your family, they would have explicitly forbidden it. I am absolutely certain that I am not the first to find this loophole. Can you truly say you've never heard of a member of your Chapter encountering their family?"

"It has happened. At military processions and civic celebrations."

"Well then."

Zophernes had not argued further. And now the scaffolding around the columns creaked softly under his weight as he ascended to the third tier.

She hung back as the Space Marine advanced towards the seventh column. Just being in the vicinity of her blank aura was often unpleasant for the unprepared, and she didn't wish to spoil the occasion. But she could not help but wish to see the outcome of her plan. After the blood and fear of their near-defeat, she craved something to lift her spirit.

And there they were. Barsinis and her sons, staring agape as Zophernes approached. One of the younger children actually fled behind a column, and a toddler-in-arms began crying at the sight of the Astartes. Barsinis stepped forwards, having to raise her head, for she stood barely chest-high to her son.

Zophernes knelt and held his one arm out wide. Tears poured down his mother's face as she clutched him, and he carefully folded his arm across her shoulders.

Sans made no attempt to catch what they said, nor read their lips, although she could have. She didn't even watch the entire interaction in detail, merely stealing glances here and there. She saw the family embracing Zophernes in turns, eventually even the young children overcoming their fear of the massive figure. She saw one of the brothers touch a name engraved in the stone, and after a moment Zophernes pressed his forehead against the name, eyes closed.

The reunion did not last long. A quarter-hour, no more. The Astartes warrior gave a bow and turned, not looking back as he proceeded back down the scaffold and past where Sans waited. He gave her a nod, and a tiny smile of thanks. Barsinis and the rest of her family went the other way, looking back constantly.

After they had left, Sans approached the column herself. Offering a prayer of her own would help further calm her soul, she thought. She brushed her fingers along the name of the fallen where Zophernes' head had rested.

OCHUS, SON OF AGOLON AND BARSINIS
AUSPEX OPERATOR, DESTROYER "UNERRING ARROW"

# ? Apr 15, 2024 05:00

Telsa Cola: Aug 19, 2011; No... this is all wrong... this whole operation has just gone completely sidewaysface

AnEdgelord posted:

this was always how I imagined it going with marines and women, the creation process is so invasive and so total that female aspirants are essentially forcibly gender transitioned by the process

Right but I guess this brings into question the issue of actual representation, which I think is the core issue here. Because as a POC if you went "Oh sure there are black space marines, but as a result of the induction process they look and act like all the white ones" I'd be pretty pissed.

Yes I know the Salamanders are a thing and GW absolutely hosed that up recently.

# ? Apr 15, 2024 08:41

lines: Aug 18, 2013; She, laughing in mockery, changed herself into a wren and flew away.

The issue really is that socially, space marines have a bunch of culturally masculine coded things (Battle-Brothers etc.) and personally, like, I want to see female Space Marines, but you do have to deal with that legacy to some satisfaction. But I think they should do it.

# ? Apr 15, 2024 10:02

Angry Lobster: May 16, 2011; Served with honor
and some clarified butter.

What really interests me with the new always-had-females Custodes, is how their homoeroticisim jokes meta is going to evolve from this change.

# ? Apr 15, 2024 10:09

Gravitas Shortfall: Jul 17, 2007; Utility is seven-eighths Proximity.

Angry Lobster posted:

What really interests me with the new always-had-females Custodes, is how their homoeroticisim jokes meta is going to evolve from this change.

tall_lady_holding_short_lady_against_wall.jpg

# ? Apr 15, 2024 10:18

OPAONI: Jul 23, 2021

Kylaer posted:

I wrote a thing. It's not Doc Eldar.

Hell yeah I gotta go hug my kid.

# ? Apr 15, 2024 10:27

NihilCredo: Jun 6, 2011; iram omni possibili modo preme:
plus una illa te diffamabit, quam multæ virtutes commendabunt

lines posted:

The issue really is that socially, space marines have a bunch of culturally masculine coded things (Battle-Brothers etc.) and personally, like, I want to see female Space Marines, but you do have to deal with that legacy to some satisfaction. But I think they should do it.

Nah. Custodes can work, sort of, because the creation process has always been very vague and there's only a few short stories and allusions here and there to retcon. (Same for male Sisters of Silence, incidentally, and were it not for the name those could be an even easier fit than female custodes.)

Whereas the Space Marine recruitment, training, and ascension process has been painstakingly covered dozens of time over decades, and to retcon it with "uhh, the female recruits were just out of frame, training too" would be utterly pathetic. (Likewise for male SoB, there's less lore but much more identity to retcon). Only the Primaris Marines would have been the perfect opportunity to introduce FSM, given that they came from an entirely new pipeline and a +100% recruitment base increase would have been irresistible to Cawl.

Angry Lobster posted:

What really interests me with the new always-had-females Custodes, is how their homoeroticisim jokes meta is going to evolve from this change.

I have strong evidence that oiled-up seminude wrestling between a man and a woman, or between two women, has a considerable number of fans as well.

# ? Apr 15, 2024 10:56

lines: Aug 18, 2013; She, laughing in mockery, changed herself into a wren and flew away.

Oh I agree that retconning female Space Marines in at this stage as having always been there out of shot would feel a bit rubbish. Like you say, Primaris was the best time!

...of course there's always the "break in case of emergencies" legions II and XI box...

# ? Apr 15, 2024 12:17

moths: Aug 25, 2004; I would also still appreciate some danger.

NihilCredo posted:

(Same for male Sisters of Silence, incidentally, and were it not for the name those could be an even easier fit than female custodes.)

The only lore barrier is that male blanks get sent to the Culexis temple and are apparently more rare, like calico cats IRL.

Although it's a funny thought that some Sisters of Silence were always there, unnoticed. Being psychically near-invisible offers some hefty built-in reasoning.

# ? Apr 15, 2024 12:33

Benagain: Oct 10, 2007; Can you see that I am serious?; Fun Shoe

The appropriate stance is that every single custodes is gay as hell. Even the ladies. Not lesbians, gay. It's part of the process.

Because the emperor was gay as hell.

# ? Apr 15, 2024 12:41

Blue Raider: Sep 2, 2006

You can�t really have male SoB, that would defeat the purpose of the faction. They have male models in the line anyway. Preachers and such.

# ? Apr 15, 2024 14:49

Nessus: Dec 22, 2003; After a Speaker vote, you may be entitled to a valuable coupon or voucher!

The penitent engine in the combat patrol has a dude on it now. I gather that was not always the case

# ? Apr 15, 2024 14:57

Z the IVth: Jan 28, 2009; The trouble with your "expendable machines"; Fun Shoe

Blue Raider posted:

You can’t really have male SoB, that would defeat the purpose of the faction. They have male models in the line anyway. Preachers and such.

You could certainly quantify it as you can't identify as male and be a SOB. Everyone's gotta wear the boob plate and tactical heels but no one cares about your chromosomes and junk as long as you have an Emperor approved set of 23 pairs and swear that you are a woman when you are initiated.

Knowing the Imperium though the TERF (trans-exclusionary radical fanatics) movement probably still exists.

# ? Apr 15, 2024 15:07

Kylaer: Aug 4, 2007; I'm SURE walking around in a respirator at all times in an (even more) OPEN BIDENing society is definitely not a recipe for disaster and anyone that's not cool with getting harassed by CHUDs are cave dwellers. I've got good brain!

Benagain posted:

The appropriate stance is that every single custodes is gay as hell. Even the ladies. Not lesbians, gay. It's part of the process.

Because the emperor was gay as hell.

Keep in mind that for all his knowledge and power, the core entity of the Emperor was born in the Neolithic period, and views things through a lens profoundly different from ours. Why present as male and have twenty giant sons and no daughters? Because he's from the Stone Age and if you were too, it'd make perfect sense.

NihilCredo posted:

Whereas the Space Marine recruitment, training, and ascension process has been painstakingly covered dozens of time over decades, and to retcon it with "uhh, the female recruits were just out of frame, training too" would be utterly pathetic. (Likewise for male SoB, there's less lore but much more identity to retcon). Only the Primaris Marines would have been the perfect opportunity to introduce FSM, given that they came from an entirely new pipeline and a +100% recruitment base increase would have been irresistible to Cawl.

As the vignette I wrote above shows, I'm solidly in the camp of retconning it to be "The female recruits are right there in the frame, training too, and when the training and geneforging is done, they're Battle-Brothers." The masculine presentation and the centrality of brotherhood are core attributes of Space Marines, the primarchs all presented and identified as male (which, again, could be written off as a quirk of the Emperor's personality, Malcador even says something along those lines at one point), and the ability of geneseed to overwrite the recipient's own biological traits is well documented. I really do not see any reason for it ever to be described what a Space Marine's genitals look like. Marines who started off as female may or may not remember that they did, but even the ones who do, don't care. Now they're Astartes, and that's all that matters.

Z the IVth posted:

Knowing the Imperium though the TERF (trans-exclusionary radical fanatics) movement probably still exists.

This radicalism has largely been wiped out by the puritan fanatics, who believe that the only thing that matters is your devotion to and willingness to die for the God-Emperor.

# ? Apr 15, 2024 15:52

Fearless: Sep 3, 2003; DRINK MORE MOXIE

Z the IVth posted:

You could certainly quantify it as you can't identify as male and be a SOB. Everyone's gotta wear the boob plate and tactical heels but no one cares about your chromosomes and junk as long as you have an Emperor approved set of 23 pairs and swear that you are a woman when you are initiated.

Knowing the Imperium though the TERF (trans-exclusionary radical fanatics) movement probably still exists.

This being a sci-fi setting, they'd be astro-TERFs.

# ? Apr 15, 2024 16:10

hopterque: Mar 9, 2007; sup

Kylaer posted:

Keep in mind that for all his knowledge and power, the core entity of the Emperor was born in the Neolithic period, and views things through a lens profoundly different from ours. Why present as male and have twenty giant sons and no daughters?

Because he's extremely gay, of course.

# ? Apr 15, 2024 16:27

Improbable Lobster: Jan 6, 2012; "From each according to his ability" said Ares. It sounded like a quotation.; Buglord

moths posted:

The only lore barrier is that male blanks get sent to the Culexis temple and are apparently more rare, like calico cats IRL.

Although it's a funny thought that some Sisters of Silence were always there, unnoticed. Being psychically near-invisible offers some hefty built-in reasoning.

Not true, a female Culexus was one of the first ones depicted in a black library novel. The Culexus Temple recruits seperately from the Silent Sisters and also sometimes clones/vat-grow new assassins.

# ? Apr 15, 2024 16:45

Improbable Lobster: Jan 6, 2012; "From each according to his ability" said Ares. It sounded like a quotation.; Buglord

Nessus posted:

The penitent engine in the combat patrol has a dude on it now. I gather that was not always the case

You now have the choice of a penitent engine, with a male or female victim or mortifier, which specifically hold failed or traitor SoBs.

# ? Apr 15, 2024 16:47

OPAONI: Jul 23, 2021

Renegades: Lord of Excess seems like a solid b-tier production so far. The basic premise is an Emperor's Children warband stumbles upon an Imperial agri-world in Imperium Nihilus currently dealing with a genestealer uprising and try and take it for their own. It's got lots of dramatic irony but is a poor intro to the setting - but if you're reading this thread, do you need an intro?

# ? Apr 15, 2024 17:04

Arc Hammer: Mar 4, 2013; Got any deathsticks?

Lady Custodes is awesome enough that I'm fine if the Marines never get lady marines. They're already part of the best fighters in the Imperium now and they get to be absolutely fabulous in their gold pointy helmets.

# ? Apr 15, 2024 17:30

CottonWolf: Jul 20, 2012; Good ideas generator

OPAONI posted:

Renegades: Lord of Excess seems like a solid b-tier production so far. The basic premise is an Emperor's Children warband stumbles upon an Imperial agri-world in Imperium Nihilus currently dealing with a genestealer uprising and try and take it for their own. It's got lots of dramatic irony but is a poor intro to the setting - but if you're reading this thread, do you need an intro?

I�m enjoying it, as someone whose favourite legion is Emperor�s Children. Not sure where it�s going to go in the back half, it�s ticked my EC weirdness box so far though. It�s not top tier BL, but it�s probably up with Fulgrim as the top two pure EC books, given how few there actually are. (The Fabulous Bill books are undeniably better, but I don�t really consider them as going for quite the same thing, much as I like them.)

# ? Apr 15, 2024 17:48

Kvlt!: May 19, 2012

ive been really digging the Battlefleet Gothic games and i was wondering are there any 40k books that focus on space battles? and if so which are the best ones?

# ? Apr 15, 2024 20:27

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# ? Jun 6, 2024 16:26

Angry Lobster: May 16, 2011; Served with honor
and some clarified butter.

OPAONI posted:

Renegades: Lord of Excess seems like a solid b-tier production so far. The basic premise is an Emperor's Children warband stumbles upon an Imperial agri-world in Imperium Nihilus currently dealing with a genestealer uprising and try and take it for their own. It's got lots of dramatic irony but is a poor intro to the setting - but if you're reading this thread, do you need an intro?

There's been a severe drought of big releases since the Heresy ended, so I'm tempted to pick it out.

NihilCredo posted:

I have strong evidence that oiled-up seminude wrestling between a man and a woman, or between two women, has a considerable number of fans as well.

# ? Apr 15, 2024 20:35

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Warhammer: After 18 years, finally an end

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