'Warhammer 40,000: The Ultimate Guide' Author Confirms Female Custodes Still Part Of Warhammer
Gav Thorpe, one of the authors of the recently released Warhammer 40,000: The Ultimate Guide confirmed that female Adeptus Custodes are still part of Warhammer.
A number of Warhammer 40,000 fans believed that Games Workshop might have retconned their own retcon of female Adeptus Custodes based on the book, given it describes Custodes as “brotherhoods.”
A screenshot of the book shared to X by WokehammerLs states, “As a Legion of exceptional individuals, the Adeptus Custodes are less regimented than other Imperial forces, with promotion based entirely on merit. The captain-general leads, aided by a group of ten tribunes. Below the tribunate, commanders of individual forces are known as shield-captains. Armies, or shield hosts, are formed from across all five orders. Dozens of other sub-organisations, brotherhoods, and grouping run through the orders such as the [redacted] Wardens, Shadowkeepers, or Solar Watch.”
Another excerpt stated, “As Custodians accumulate victories, they are awarded a name to commemorate each one, though these are kept secret from those outside the Legion, and in public a Custodian will continue to use the name granted to him upon his investiture.”
On Blue Sky, Thorpe was asked whether female Custodes are still apart of Warhammer. He replied, “Yes, of course they are. Not every miniature is included and I don’t recall exactly but we may have already finished that section when the series / miniature went public (DK didn’t have access to pre-release pics).”
Games Workshop infamously retconned the Adeptus Custodes by adding females in their 10th edition of Codex: Adeptus Custodes. 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.”
Another excerpt makes it clear the that Kesh is indeed a female Custodes given that she wields 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.”
Games Workshop confirmed the retcon, and chose to gaslight its own fans and players by claiming that there have always been female Custodes. The company posted on X, “Since the first of the Ten Thousand were created, there have always been female Custodians.”
They have since doubled down on this throughout the year. In a blog post, they removed gendered language noting that only boys and males could become Custodians. Instead it states, “Potential Custodians are taken in at a very young age to better survive the rigours of their transformation – no older than late infancy – for the fundamental changes that will be wrought upon their flesh, minds and souls are tantamount to apotheosis. It is considered a great honour for those of Terran noble houses to submit a child.”
A previous codex made it clear Custodians were recruited from infant sons of the noble houses of Terra. It stated, “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 September, Games Workshop tripled down. It introduced a female Adeptus Custodes in its Warhammer 40,000 animated The Tithes series.
On its website it also shared, “Tyrith Shiva Kyrus (the first three of a long list of honorific names earned fighting for the Emperor) has the privilege of being our first portrayal of a female Custodian Guard since the recent revelation that Custodians can be any gender.”
The company added, “This fact came as a real surprise to many, since it wasn’t something previously explored. That, in and of itself, isn’t a particularly unusual thing for Warhammer 40,000 and its lore; there are simply loads of things the Warhammer Studios have never expressly stated, whether that’s ruling them in or out.”
From there, Warhammer continued to justify this massive retcon and gaslight its enthusiasts and hobbyists, “Since the earliest conversations about bringing the Horus Heresy to the tabletop and Black Library fiction, tahe exact nature of the Custodians has been under discussion – after all, their origins and means of creation, unlike for example, the Legiones/Adeptus Astartes, are shrouded in mystery.”
“A significant advantage to this portrayal is that it helps us to address a common misconception – that the Custodes are just bigger, better Space Marines. They aren’t. Space Marines were made through industrialised ritual to be mass-produced, brute-force weapons of conquest. And even 10,000 years after their creation, draped in self-assigned glory, that’s still true of them at their core,” Games Workshop stated. “Each Custodian, on the other hand, is unique. Painstakingly made through peerless craft and arcane artifice, their physique, their psyche, their very soul, is a bespoke instrument of the Emperor they unquestioningly serve.”
What do you make of Thorpe confirming that female Custodes are still in the Warhammer 40k world?
It's a good thing. Custodians being male only never made sense unless the Emperor really just only likes men. Custodians are barely human anyways, so it's not like genetics matter.
Hmmm...no. There are only male custodes. Don't care what GW says.