I've seen a lot of dissatisfaction with how female Custodians are revealed, and man, YouTube videos whining about how "Games Workshop doubled down on being woke" after the second Tithes episode on Warhammer+. Like, damn. C'mon.
One of the more common complaints is that the reveal feels "lazy" or they want a better way of how female Custodians are introduced into the lore, or something. So I thought I should try and bridge a supposedly "better" reveal with Games Workshop's statement that female Custodians were always around. I agree that they have always been around (call it a retcon, or as Games Workshop said, there's always space in the lore for constant changes and updates), but for argument's sake, if people do want a less abrupt reveal, let me try my hand at something.
Knight of Gold
I grunted as the gigantic axe collided against the glimmering shock lance of my steed, causing it to stumble. The bestial creature bellowed, swinging its immense weapon again, but I flexed my hands, my haptic gloves transmitting neural impulses. In response, my armor raised its glowing gauntlet shield to catch the deadly blade before it could cleave through adamantium, sparks showering the lesser, gibbering exodimensional xenos that brayed and leaped around our enormous feet.
As I guided my steed back, I inadvertently trampled upon several of those red-skinned, horned beasts. That small sense of satisfaction vanished when the gargantuan beast lunged again, its axe hammering into the flickering ion gauntlet shield that enveloped my Knight in a defensive aura.
The machine spirit of Naginata howled, its bellicose nature disallowing it to believe it would lose. Having fought within the Throne Mechanicum of my Cerastus patterned Knight Lancer for decades, I had been influenced by its valor and its stubbornness.
"Long live the Emperor! For House Yato!" I roared and leveled the pedal. My steed jerked forward, thrusting its crackling power lance into the beast's chest. The xenos growled and dodged with a grace that belied its bulk, and though I sheared off one of those great, black bat-like wings, I was unable to deal the finishing blow.
The gargantuan beast snarled and slammed its shoulder against my steed, cracking the frontal armor and staggering it. The holo-display before me fizzled and cracked from the impact, the grainy feed providing nothing but its massive maw.
"Throne damn it," I muttered, struggling to right my armor. The beast was barreling forward again, and my reeling steed was knocked over. My vision blacked out, my helmed head cracking against my Throne Mechanicum as I was flung against my restraints. I clenched my haptic gloves desperately, lashing out and gouging flesh and muscle from the foul creature, but it had withdrawn enough to avoid a fatal injury.
Its hooved feet stomping against the ground, it raised its huge axe with both hands, like an executioner about to behead a fallen prisoner.
My shoulders slumped, even as I defiantly raised my ion gauntlet shield for the last time. The azure glow was gone, leaving bare metal, and from experience, I knew naked adamantium wouldn't be able to withstand the cleaving stroke.
"Hah." I chuckled darkly. When I left my homeworld of Ryuusei all those years ago, to participate in the grand endeavor of the Emperor's Great Crusade and bring human worlds back into the fold of the burgeoning Imperium - and enlightenment - I never would have thought I would journey all the way back to Holy Terra for its final defense against the Traitors.
The thought of returning to humanity's birth planet had never even crossed my mind.
But now, Horus Lupercal's Legions were knocking down the walls of the Palace, and threatening the Master of Mankind. I had survived the initial Siege at the walls, I had participated in the retaking of the Lion's Gate Space Port against the Traitor Death Guard as part of the First Terran Tank Division alongside the valiant legionnaires of the White Scars, I had even escaped the massacre of so many Loyalist Knight banners and Titan Legions at the hands of the nefarious Legio Mortis.
And now, right within the innter Sanctum, the last bastion of mankind that was invaded by these foul exodimensional xenos through unknown means, my faithful steed and I would finally fall.
At least I fall in the defense of the Emperor...but by His name, I shall take this monstrosity down with me!
Even as the axe severed the left arm of my Cerastus Knight at the elbow, hewing through the adamantium frame once renowned for producing an impenetrable field of defensive energies, I thrust the shock lance forward as one final display of defiance.
...only to miss spectacularly, the lance grazing the shoulder and tearing off the monster's other wing. Like the Minotaur of ancient myth, the beast snorted and sawed through the remnants of my steed's shield arm, readying to plunge that infernal weapon into its chest.
It never had the opportunity to do so.
At the corner of my failing holo-screen, I caught sight of a glimpse of gold. A flash, too fast for my mortal eyes to see, streaking like a bolter shell, impacted against the great beast and causing it to stagger. As the bullish monstrosity whirled to confront the new threat, bolter shells detonated against its face, the gold figure landing at its heels and spinning the guardian spear in his grip.
Golden auramite with a polished sheen that remained bright despite the falling dust and violence of the siege. That crimson plume that extended proudly from a tall helm. Reflexes and movements far beyond any human - surpassing even those venerable warriors of the Legiones Astartes.
A warrior of the Legio Custodes. I had the privilege of witnessing their martial superiority before, even fought alongside a handful of them during the Great Crusade - and more frequently during these final dark days of Holy Terra - and their superlative skills had never failed to amaze me. The genius of the Emperor, condensed into his masterful genetic craft, had bred only ten thousand of these warriors - a drop in the ocean when compared to the uncountable military forces seeded throughout the vast Imperium.
I watched in awe as he danced through the barrage of strokes that the monstrosity furiously delivered, weaving through the immense axe-blade before punching his guardian spear into the chest. The smaller weapon didn't seem to deal more damage, but the following detonations told me that the Custodian had fired bolters pointblank into the wound he had opened.
The beast bellowed and swatted the Custodian away, but the golden warrior cartwheeled - a movement that seemed impossible for a figure clad from head to toe in brilliant, heavy armor - and avoided its immense arm. He hit the ground and ducked elegantly under a reverse sweep of the beast's axe, and even left a cut across the assailant's wrist that bled brimstone and ash instead of blood.
Stomping about, the monstrosity appeared to be a raging whirlwind of uncontrollable violence, a contrast to the precise and measured strokes of the impossibly swifter golden blur of the Custodian. Another couple of strokes sent infernal substances spurting from the creature's ravaged throat, but still, the beast refused to fall.
However, this was no mere monster. From what I could tell, it was a master of the infernal legions that were crushed under the fuselage of my steed, of the gathering hordes that continued to sweep across the Inner Sanctum and were now joining the battle.
The Custodian, noting the numbers, swung his guardian spear in an eviscerating arc, gutting and cleaving the smaller creatures before taking a step back. However, he was unable to avoid a backhand, the curled talons of the greater beast grazing his helm and tearing away the plume.
The Custodian stumbled, his helmet clearly dented, but he was somehow able to avoid the next blow, which pulverized the ground. As he retreated, more bolter shells detonating against the pursuing beast, I finally made my move.
C'mon, Naginata, you can do it.
I poured my will into my steed, melding it with the barely contained rage of Naginata, and pierced the monstrosity from behind. Azure lightning erupted along the length of my armor's shock lance, focusing into an explosive blast at the edge and blowing the monster from the inside out. I watched with grim satisfaction as the once-winged beast convulsed before disintegrating into a swirling cloud of ash and brimstone.
The Custodian landed on his feet gracefully, poised to evade a sweep that never came. He tilted his head slightly in thanks.
"No, I should be the one thanking you." Coughing, I removed my helm and climbed out of my fallen Knight, which was half-lying in the dirt, partially propped up by the still crackling shock lance. I was going to need a sacristan, but such experts were impossible to find now, when the forces of Terra were depleted severely by the constant assaults. "I'm Tanaka of House Yato, and I wish to express my gratitude to you for saving my life."
"The gratitude goes both ways," the Custodian replied in a deep voice. He reached up to remove his damaged helm, allowing the dented equipment to drop on the ground. My jaw dropped when I saw his..., no her features.
"You...you are a woman."
Her brow furrowed in puzzlement. Like all Custodians, her steely features appeared chiseled from granite, that bulked up frame coiling with all of that raw power within.
"I do not see the revelance of my gender to this situation."
"Ah, no. Forgive me, my lord. I meant no offense. I just thought...I used to believe that all Custodians are men."
Now that I thought about it, the majority of the Custodians I had fought alongside always had their helms on. Perhaps their leader - the Shield Captains, if I wasn't mistaken - would occasionally remove their helms to speak with a Legate Marshal or a Legion Praetor, but for the most part, the golden warriors were silent inhuman figures with their faces concealed behind those auramite masks.
I had always assumed that all of them were male under those inscrutable helms, but it appears that I was sorely mistaken. Now that I thought about it, there was no basis for such an assumption. For all I knew, underneath those helms and layers of master-crafted auramite, a significant portion of those Custodians were female. There was no way to tell, not when their resplendent armor rendered their physical exteriors near identical to each other, aside from markings of rank.
"Our Lord and Master does not distinguish between genders when it comes to selecting prime candidates for the Legio Custodes. As long as our constitution matches His needs, He will perform the genealchemical surgeries on us, regardless of our origins."
"Y...yeah. I didn't know that."
She cocked her head. "You are from House Yato of Ryuusei. Similar to House Procon Vi of Procon, where your military traditions are dominated by male scions and soldiers."
She did not mean that as criticism, but merely an observation, yet I flinched from the sting of her words. The Daimyos of House Yato had insisted on "honoring" our traditions and customs, but was real honor not doing all we could in order to combat the Traitors? In these dark days, we should have mobilized every reserves we had, instead of adhering to history and tradition.
Not only that, a significant fraction of our planetary militia was composed of women, many of them wives and daughters left behind by the soldiers departing for the Great Crusade. They were equipped with rudimentary lasrifles to protect our homeworld of Ryuusei, a stark contrast to the more advanced volkite chargers from Old Night that were issued to the male frontline soldiers. Yet, would possessing the resolve to defend Ryuusei from invaders with basic, less advanced weapons and wargear not make them more courageous and honorable than us, complacently clad in our immense armors of adamantine or ensconced within sturdy hulls of battle tanks?
"That is correct, my lord. My apologies."
"No need for apologies." She turned away, clanking the haft of her guardian spear against the ground. "You are here, in the final days, to assist us in the defense of the homeworld. For that alone, you have our thanks."
I made the sign of the aquila as I watched her go before flopping against the hull of my sprawled Knight Lancer. Glancing at Naginata, I wondered what kind of field repairs I could conduct to coax my faithful steed back to battle. As I did so, I shook my head wryly.
I thought I saw everything, but even in these final apocalyptic days of the Age of Darkness, I still find myself learning something new.
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