On Friday, Games Workshop unveiled new models for Warhammer 40K, and in doing so, made history for the tabletop game.
During the “New Year Preview” livestream, the company showed off a range of models for the Legio and Adeptus Custodes, some of which featured female-presenting heads. It’s a marked departure from previous Custodes models, which have always given male-presenting heads to the Emperor of Man’s personal guard.
Warhammer 40K’s female equivalent to the Custodes has always been the Sisters of Silence, first introduced in 40K’s Seventh Edition back in 2017. But in 2024, Games Workshop gradually began rolling back some of those restrictions: that year’s rulebook featured a short story centered on a woman Custodian named Calladayce Taurovalia Kesh, at the time their only representative within the organization. Later on, the animated series Tithes debuted a female Custodian named Tyrith Shiva Kyrus in its second episode, and both instances spurred reactions from the right-wing part of the Warhammer community (and that general sect of users online.)
But the inclusion of female Custodes here shows they’re not going anywhere. In the stream, Games Workshop mentions the Shield Captain’s unhelmeted head having “golden leaf woven into her hair,” (emphasis ours) as a means of tamping down any potential debates over whether this was a woman or a long-haired man. They also confirmed this isn’t a lore change: first-born sons aren’t the only way to get Custodes, and “noble daughters could also have been taken. And at some point, you run out of noble houses – even after you’ve conquered all of Terra, the inexorable war machine of the Imperium still requires a constant churn of recruits.”
The inclusion of female heads here marks a significant step for the company putting its foot down against its bad faith, right-wing base, and supports the fans who’ve been asking for such an option. And for those fans, the new Legio Custodes models—which can be used in both Horus Heresy and Warhammer 40K—will be available later this year.
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