Mike Brooks changed Solomon Akurra’s appearance in a recent Alpha Legion novel, and it looks like he’s going to get to continue it again. The shift contradicts decades of established Warhammer 40,000 canon. The cover of “Die Geisterlegion: Die Seele der Traume”, a new book where the English title has not been released yet, depicts Akurra once again as a Black man with dreadlocks and a cybernetic left arm, a departure from the Alpha Legion’s original descriptions as copper-skinned with Mediterranean or Middle Eastern features.
The Alpha Legion has always been one of Warhammer 40K’s most enigmatic factions. Founded during the Great Crusade as the XX Legion, they specialize in infiltration, misdirection, and covert operations. Their twin Primarchs, Alpharius and Omegon, established a culture of secrecy so extreme that most Alpha Legionaries undergo facial surgery to resemble their Primarch, making individual identification nearly impossible. The Legion’s motto ”I am Alpharius” reflects this commitment to anonymity and deception.
Solomon Akurra stands out within this culture precisely because he refused the facial alteration surgery. In “Harrowmaster,” Brooks’ previous Alpha Legion novel, this choice marks Akurra as distinct within a Legion that prizes uniformity. By the 41st millennium, most Alpha Legionaries who still undergo the surgery are mocked by their peers as outdated. Akurra’s decision to maintain his individual appearance makes him a charismatic leader capable of uniting fractured Alpha Legion warbands under his Snake Teeth banner.
The original lore established the Alpha Legion’s ethnic appearance clearly. In discussions of Space Marine Legion ethnicities, the Alpha Legion is described as having “copper-colored skin” with “light-colored eyes,” features common in Arab peoples from regions like Iraq and Syria. The Legion recruited heavily from Nerth, a desert world, and their appearance reflected Mediterranean and Middle Eastern phenotypes. It was specific worldbuilding that tied the Legion’s visual identity to their operational methods and cultural inspirations.
Brooks changed that. His cover art and recent wiki entries describe Akurra as a Black man with dreadlocks, approximately 200 years old by 41st millennium standards. This description appears in materials published from 2024-2025, starting with “Renegades: Harrowmaster” and continuing through the newly leaked “Die Geisterlegion,” which loosely translates as “The Ghost Legion: The Pillar of Dreams.” There’s no in-universe explanation for the change, no narrative reason why a character previously described with copper skin and Mediterranean features now appears distinctly different.
Mike Brooks has written extensively for Games Workshop’s Black Library imprint. His Warhammer 40K work includes multiple Alpha Legion novels, Necromunda fiction, and Eldar-focused stories. Brooks is known for incorporating contemporary social themes into his 40K writing. In “Voidscarred,” his Eldar novel, he introduced they/them pronouns for a Craftworld Farseer and created a character titled “Baronex” instead of Baron or Baroness. The book also features a gay romance between main characters.
In “Necromunda: Road to Redemption,” Brooks also created a villain named Sarkon Aggad, a transparent reference to political commentator Carl Benjamin, known online as Sargon of Akkad. The character is described as bellowing with rage through a voxcaster before being strangled to death with slave manacles. Brooks posted to X in August 2020: “p.s. Freebooterz support Pride, Trans Rights, and Black Lives Matters.”
Games Workshop’s approach to canon has been very, let’s call it “flexible” in recent years. The company conveniently took on the idea that all Black Library novels are “true” from a certain point of view, but not all are equally canonical. The core rulebooks and codexes establish baseline lore, while novels explore stories within that framework. Authors have creative freedom, but changes to established character descriptions typically require editorial approval.
The Akurra change isn’t an isolated incident. Games Workshop introduced female Adeptus Custodes in 2024 despite decades of lore establishing the Custodes as exclusively male warriors created from the Emperor’s own genetic template. The company’s official position was that female Custodes had always existed and fans simply hadn’t noticed. The retcon generated massive backlash from longtime players who saw it as disrespecting established canon for contemporary political reasons.
The Alpha Legion’s visual identity matters because it’s tied to their operational methods. A Legion that specializes in infiltration and blending into populations would recruit from diverse ethnic backgrounds and train operatives to adapt their appearance. The original copper-skinned, Mediterranean appearance made sense for a Legion that operated extensively in desert and urban environments across the Imperium. Changing a prominent character’s appearance without narrative justification undermines the internal logic that made the Legion compelling.
Brooks’ “Harrowmaster” and “Die Geisterlegion” are part of the Renegades series focusing on Chaos Space Marine warbands in the 41st millennium. The books explore how the Alpha Legion operates 10,000 years after the Horus Heresy, fragmented into competing warbands with different interpretations of their original mission. Akurra’s storyline involves his attempt to forge his own realm and unite Alpha Legion factions under his leadership. The books are canon within Black Library’s publishing line, meaning future authors can reference events and character descriptions from them.
The change to Akurra’s appearance will be the canonical version going forward unless Games Workshop explicitly retcons it. That’s how Black Library canon works. Once something appears in print with editorial approval, it becomes part of the official lore unless contradicted by a higher-tier source like a codex. Future artists illustrating Akurra will reference Brooks’ description. Future authors writing Alpha Legion stories will need to account for this version of the character.
Games Workshop has not issued any statement about the Akurra redesign. The company rarely comments on individual creative decisions in Black Library novels, preferring to let the books speak for themselves. Brooks has not publicly addressed the change either. The new appearance simply exists in the published material, and fans are left to accept it or argue about it online.
What do you think? Does changing established character appearances matter, or is visual flexibility acceptable in a setting as large as Warhammer 40K?
Mike Brooks is just pure evil. And Games Workshop is way too corrupt at this rate. This franchise is pretty much dead.
Nobody wants Michelle Obama Space Marine.