Games Workshop, the company behind Warhammer, confirmed that it retconned the Adeptus Custodes by adding female Space Marines. They have also lied about it being a retcon.
Codex: Adeptus Custodes (2024), Black Library
As reported by The ArchCast, who shared an excerpt from the Codex, it states, “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.”
To dissuade individuals who might counter that excerpt doesn’t confirm she’s an Astartes Custodes, but she could be a Sister of Siren, Arch shared another excerpt from the codex that shows her wielding a guardian spear.
It states, “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
From there, Arch points out how this is indeed a major retcon by citing previous codexes that describe the Astartes Custodes as men. One of them reads, “All Custodes 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.”
An excerpt from a Warhammer codex
As for why he believes this change was made, Arch shared, “It is simply just a political power play. That is all. That is all it has ever been. That is all it ever will be. .. This is the ideological capture of the franchise happening here in real time. We know the Custodes are male.”
He continued, “And even if it wasn’t stated outright, which again it has been, it would be weird, very weird indeed for the Custodes to just be like, ‘Oh yes! No, we’ve kept this a secret all this time. And I know you’ve never heard about a male custodes ever before, not a single mention in the Horus Heresy or any preceding source books, but now we could totally do this. We’ve just elected to never ever ever at any point told you. And now there are two of them.'”
“And just like the Sith, they herald corruption where they come, of course,” he added.
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Games Workshop has since posted to their official X account writing, “Since the first of the Ten Thousand were created, there have always been female Custodians.”
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Arch reacted to this post noting the change was done due to malice. He stated, “Say it after me, ‘Always assume malice.'”
Furthermore Arch speculates that these changes are done at the behest of investment firms BlackRock and Vanguard given the two combined control over 10% of the company’s shares.
A screenshot of Games Workshop’s Shareholder Statistics
He states, “Now, both BlackRock and Vanguard are very progressive investment companies that have been actively pushing the idea of ESG and DEI into every company they have been involved with. In fact, they have established that your abidance with these programs, which are extremely progressive and woke in nature, and also should be outright illegal in most Western nations due to the requirements or racialized hiring programs, they demand that all of the companies they work with abide by these regulations. Games Workshop is no different. I guarantee it.”
In fact, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink made it abundantly clear he wanted to force behaviors on companies he invested in. During an appearance at The New York Times’ DealBook back in 2017, Fink said, “You have to force behaviors. And if you don’t force behaviors whether it’s gender, or race, or, just any way you want to say, the composition of your team. You’re going to be impacted. And that’s not just recruiting, it is development as Ken said.”
When asked how he plans to force change, Fink said, “It has to be imbued in the culture of a firm. It has to be talked about. It has to be shown. Behaviors across the entire firm and entire region have to be similar. And every citizen of the firm has to understand what is acceptable behaviors and what are unacceptable behaviors.”
It’s all a conspiracy, they said. No one is trying to socially engineer corporate America, they said.
BlackRock CEO, Larry Fink: “You have to force behaviors…If [firms] don’t force behaviors, whether it’s gender or race…you’re going to be impacted.” pic.twitter.com/RDqtKOjQeM
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) June 5, 2023
Arch then reiterates that this is all done as part of a political agenda, “As we talked about in the last video where we covered an article, which makes this all clear. This has nothing to do with female Space Marines. This is why the demand was immediately made for female Space Marines after the canonization of female Custodes.”
“This is not about representation. It’s not about having female models. It is about power and influence. It is about subverting and taking over what has at this point become a British institution. That is the only goal,” he declared.
A screenshot from Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (2024), Saber Interactive
This news comes in the wake of Games Workshop previously declaring their allegiance to diversity back in June 2020. The company posted a statement that declared Warhammer is For Everyone and noted their intentions of “diversifying” their various Warhammer products.
The statement shared to social media read, “One of the great powers of our hobby is its ability to bring people together in common cause, to build bonds and friendships that cross divides. We believe in and support a community united by shared values of mutual kindness and respect.”
“Our fantasy settings are grim and dark, but that is not a reflection of who we are or how we feel the real world should be. We will never accept nor condone any form of prejudice, hatred or abuse in our company or in the Warhammer hobby. We will continue to diversify the cast of characters we portray through miniatures, art and storytelling so everyone can find representation and heroes they can relate to.”
Finally, it concluded, “And if you feel the same way, wherever and whoever you are, we’re glad you are part of the Warhammer community. If not, you will not be missed.”
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What do you make of Games Workshop lying about female Custodes always being around and introducing them in their latest codex?
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Okay. If this is the hill they want to plant the flag on, why stop them? One thing I can say about that fanbase is that regardless of how much GW beats them like a wife, they will continue to give them money, and this will continue to happen.
I exited the game a long time ago. This is no longer any concern to me.
The worst of it is, if there were a lot people calling for changes in the games, you could almost justify it, but there is no call for these changes, nobody was complaining about this stuff, so to change it like they are is pure malice.