Few issues get Warhammer 40K gamers going like the subject of feminine Space Marines.  A GW oldtimer talked about what actually went down in Nottingham.

Anytime hobbyists convey up Female Space Marines, a tidal wave of arguments ensues. “it goes against the lore”, “it’s not canon”, “if you don’t like it, play a different game”, or the traditional “just play Sisters”. The arguments are limitless.

Everyone is aware of the story of Space Marines. They are the Emperor’s tremendous troopers, genetically modified, and other than violence, immortal. They are armed with one of the best armor and weapons the  Imperium can present and naturally, They Know No Fear.  Finally, they’re all the time male.

Clearly, a dude.

But the reality is extra complicated.

First of all, there WERE feminine Space Marines, approach, approach again within the earliest incarnation of Warhammer 40,000. Take a have a look at the web page of Adventurers from the White Dwarf 99, in March of 1988.

Over on the higher left nook and leftmost second row from the underside are “Female Warrior Jayne” and “Female Warrior Gabs” Are they feminine Space Marines? They actually have the identical design of Power Armor because the Space Marines of the period, if somewhat extra kind becoming. All the opposite Adventurers all have very completely different appears to be like than the Space Marines.

Enter Alan Merrett

Alan Merrett is an oldtimer GW alumni. He was there from nearly the very starting and spent a few years because the Head of GW’s Intellectual Property. He left the corporate a number of years in the past, however chimed in on Facebook many moons in the past, as to what was actually occurring with the difficulty within the Nineteen Eighties:

Let’s Dig In a Little

This is each illuminating and unsurprising in equal measures. First of all, Merrett’s most important level is that feminine Space Marines have been a market-driven resolution. In the late Nineteen Eighties Games Workshop was a scrappy firm on the transfer with a brand new shiny Warhammer 40,000 sport only recently launched. They have been just about throwing something and all the things on the wall and seeing what would stick.

What actually killed feminine Marines

Nottingham fortunately produced and pushed Female fashions into the market, however acquired pushback from the retailers that they have been unpopular and requested that they be faraway from restock lists. It wasn’t that GW didn’t need feminine Space Marines. It was the male-centric customerbase within the Nineteen Eighties who didn’t.  As the sport advanced and issues just like the RTB01 boxed set exploded in reputation, GW merely couldn’t justify making a parallel line of feminine Marines that have been sluggish sellers. Thus, they consolidated the road into the look we now have to today and moved ahead.  The early feminine Marine fashions turned a forgotten apocryphal footnote to the sport.

All the male-only fluff and lore was tacked on after the very fact. The two fashions in query have been designed as feminine Space Marines by the designer, though they use some frequent iconography that was shared between each Marines and Sororitas down the highway.

The Future

The implications of this are apparent. This was by no means about lore – it was pushed by gross sales and retailers / prospects. The Nineteen Eighties have been a very long time in the past, and the pastime was much more area of interest and male-dominated than it’s at present.  One of Warhammer’s power’s is the vastness of its scope and the way the galaxy has room for absolutely anything. If GW wished to, it will be baby’s play to retcon feminine Space Marines into the sport. Note the scholar nature of Age of Sigmar’s Stormcast Eternals.

Certainly thirty years on, the client base is completely different and the urge for food for feminine Marines is there. Just go to any social media platform and seek for “female space marines” – you will discover many, many, many nice conversions and items of paintings. GW retains on slowly however certainly including feminine miniatures and charcters into the sport, but by some means in 2022 Female Space Marines continues to be the third rail of 40K – a well-liked, if divisive subject to today.

As an instance, GW may merely reveal that Bellisarius Cawl has made a progenoid breakthrough and in the end feminine Primaris are strolling out of his gene-labs prepared for something the Grimdark throws of their path! One or each of the lacking Primarchs could possibly be revealed as feminine – you by no means know.

It’s essential to consider this whole idea within the context of 2022.  GW is pulling out the nostalgia stops, and pulling historical stuff from the late Nineteen Eighties again into the sport after many years of absence. From the Pisceans returning in Necromunda, to the Zoats, and simply this month Leagues of Votann. Never say by no means…

~There’s 1,000,000 and one methods GW may do it. The actual query is ought to they?

Dad, Gamer, Publisher, Pilot, Texan. All video games on a regular basis since junior-high.
I began BoLS Interactive in 2006. I’m a lifelong tabletop & RPG gaming fanatic, and web writer working to entertain and inform my readers day-after-day.
I’ve been enjoying RPGs and Tabletop Games for the reason that Seventies. I’m been enjoying and protecting Warhammer and Warhammer 40K for over 35 years.

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