Nick Davis, a former Games Workshop employee who worked on the company’s White Dwarf magazine, took to social media to signal his wokeness in an attempt to defend the company’s Adeptus Custodes retcon and its subsequent lie regarding the retcon.
Warhammer 40,000
Excerpts from Games Workshop’s upcoming Codex: Adeptus Custodes reveals the company has retconned the lore of the elite military organization by introducing a female member.
One excerpt reads, “Custodian Calladayce Taorvalia Kesh stood upon the bridge of a Cobra-class destroyer. Named Vigilant Flame, the warship belonged to the mighty Battlefleet Solar. She lingered in the shadows at the back of the bridge, positioned at a spot where she could observe the actions of every crew member be they in the instrumentation pits, at the armament shrines or — in the case of Shipmaster Lethwyck — stood ramrod straight before his command throne.”
An excerpt from a Codex: Adeptus Custodes (2024), Black Library
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Another excerpt makes it clear the character is an Adeptus Custodes by revealing she wields a guardian spear, “Kesh was warned before anyone else aboard, sensing a sudden empyric energy spike coupled with the surge of overpressure and sharp temperature drop that presaged a teleport strike. Her guardian spear was levelled and armed before the first cry of alarm or howl of a klaxon rang through the bridge.”
An excerpt from a Warhammer codex
This was a retcon from previous lore as noted by former World of Warcraft Team Lead Mark Kern who shared previous entries regarding the Adeptus Custodes that makes it very clear it was an all-male organization.
An excerpt from the Rogue Trader rules in 1987 states, “The Adeptus Custodes is the Emperor’s inner guard, the members of which are privileged in being permitted to serve upon the Emperor, attending to his needs, receiving and recording his directions. These men never leave Earth and only rarely leave the Imperial Palace – an endless, black hive of forbidden technology and subterranean passages delving deep within the bowels of the planet.”
Warhammer 40k is a grimdark sci-fi tabletop game that is the #1 miniature gaming IP in the world.
The Adeptus Custodes are the Emperor’s inner guard and much stronger, better in every way than space marines.
Introduced in the Rogue Trader rules in 1987 as MEN from the VERY… pic.twitter.com/oeTlARrPuf
— Grummz (@Grummz) April 15, 2024
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He also shared excerpts from the 2017 and 2018 Adeptus Custodes Codexes that refer to them as the Brotherhood of Demigods and make it clear they were recruited from the sons of nobles.
One excerpt reads, “It is known that all Custodians begin their lives as the infant sons of the noble houses of Terra. It is a mark of incredible prestige to surrender one’s child to this most glorious of callings within the Imperium, and many notable clans amongst the Terran aristocracy have willingly given up almost entire generations of newborn sons to earn it.”
In the 7th and 8th edition of the official Custodes codexes, they are repeatedly referred to as the BROTHERHOOD of Demigods, recruited from the SONS of nobles.
*2017 and 2018
(Con’t) pic.twitter.com/CORWSbjYay
— Grummz (@Grummz) April 15, 2024
Despite it being a retcon, Games Workshop claimed there had always been females in the Adeptus Custodes.
The company wrote on X via the official Warhammer account, “Since the first of the Ten Thousand were created, there have always been female Custodians.”
Warhammer on X
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Davis took to social media in an attempt to defend the retcon and subsequent lie by responding to Kern. He wrote, “Well, now it is clear why you’re a former team lead, eh? Seriously, 40K lore is unreliable narration at best, myth, legend, and contradiction abound throughout the background history.”
“Heck, even through our own history. And if possible, female marines/custodes and LGBTQ+ representation make you lose your water. That’s on you and you alone,” he claimed.
Nick Davis on X
He followed up on this response in a more lengthy post. He wrote, “I worked for Games Workshop for a very specific part of its history. I started in the Mail Order Trollz and worked my way up into the Studio, finishing out my career with GW working on White Dwarf magazine, UK and then US edition.”
“During my time at the company, especially during my White Dwarf years, I had one mission. I wanted to share the joy the Warhammer hobby gave me, to lift up that mystic veil and show, who you, the average gamer (like me) could participate no matter your skill level. In short, take some of the mystery out of what is drybrushing… lol,” he said.
“I like to think I mostly succeeded in this mission, and I am heartened when I hear from now Vets in the hobby who cite me as a positive influence,” Davis added.
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“The ‘hobby’ as I like to call it is supposed to be fun, a uniting force between gamers, to create friendships, a social fucntion, something to be enjoyed and share,” he asserted. “You never were supposed to build silos of lore, because the very idea of the Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 universe was the history was so convoluted and fragmented there was no such thing as ‘fact.'”
“Everything was supposed to contradict… That was the purpose,” he asserted.
A screenshot from Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (2024), Saber Interactive
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“That being said, I am overjoyed seeing the hobby that once gave me a means to live, being so inclusive,” he declared. “Seeing female, LGBTQ+ gamers and seeing them represented at the highest level of GW toy soldiers is pure joy.”
“I love it. I wish I had seen more of it during my time at Games Workshop. But we are here now and you’ve made this old White Dwarf’er very proud,” he concluded.
Nick Davis on X
First off, Davis’ claim that the there are no facts in the Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 universe is a complete and utter load of garbage. It’s why the company publishes codices in the first place.
In fact, Games Workshop’s blog post about the Adeptus Custodes Codex states, “Inside, you’ll find everything you need to play the Adeptus Custodes and Sisters of Silence in the current edition of Warhammer 40,000, including a chunk of juicy background lore, four Detachments, 18 datasheets, Crusade content, and Combat Patrol rules.”
Warhammer 40,000: Codex: Adeptus Custodes (2018), Games Workshop
On top of this, Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 would not be as successful as it is without set rules and facts in-universe. J.R.R. Tolkien explains this concept in his essay On Fairy-Stories, “What really happens is that the story-maker proves a successful ‘sub-creator.’ He makes a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Inside it, what he relates is ‘true’: it accords with the laws of that world. You therefore believe it, while you are, as it were, inside.”
“The moment disbelief arises, the spell is broken; the magic, or rather art, has failed. You are then out in the Primary World again, looking at the little abortive Secondary World from outside. If you are obliged, by kindliness or circumstance, to stay, then disbelief must be suspended (or stifled), otherwise listening and looking would become intolerable. But this suspension of disbelief is a substitute for the genuine thing, a subterfuge we use when condescending to games or make-believe, or when trying (more or less willingly) to find what virtue we can in the work of an art that has for us failed,” he noted.
J.R.R. Tolkien via Sidh Aniron YouTube
What do you make of Davis’ attempt at gaslighting Warhammer players, hobbyists, and enthusiasists?
GW has to decide between a player base that has money vs a group of people who make noise with no money.
I think this article is a tripe of poop. You are pulling at straws regarding what the lore says. The lore is stating that, as far as we are told, it is an all-male faction. That doesn’t mean that the potential for there to have been a secret cohort of females is eradicated. It’s entirely plausible that they could have been locked away somewhere, only to now emerge. Whether they were imprisoned, frozen in time, cast off to some far flung reach of the galaxy……we’re meant to believe in all this wacky, crazy lore yet a hidden cabal of female warriors that the galaxy could have forgotten about isn’t plausible? That’s just a pathetic reason to be salty.
He basically says that the lore in the universe doesn’t matter and people shouldn’t be invested in it, in which case there is no reason to interact with it at all.