So this isn't something I have openly advertised here, but since around 2015, I finally got into Warhammer 40,000 after a virtual lifetime of brushing against it time and again, sometimes without actually realizing it (my first official introduction being at a game store I randomly walked into back in 2002). Only in recent years did I start actually digesting the lore and dumb retcons and everything related to GW that has happened since the very beginning. Good god, you think the Star Wars retcon was the worst thing ever...
Anyways, the main reason why I bring this up is because of a change in one of the armies that has gotten the fanbase riled up; the addition of females into the ranks of the Adeptus Custodes.
Brief overview, the Adeptus Custodes are the personal bodyguards of the Emperor and act as his confidants, companions, artists, poets, etc (back when he was still alive, anyways). They are genetically modified superhumans like the Space Marines, but much, MUCH better, and using a different method of creation. Each single Custodes is a unique and considerable investment in and of themselves, and there are roughly ten thousand of them.
There's also virtually nothing written about them if you exclude Constantin Valdor. The Custodes have only relatively recently begun to be mentioned in written material and weren't even a playable army until 8th Edition. That was seven years ago, now. It's described that they have basically been self-interred in the Imperial Palace for the past 10,000 years following the Emperor's almost-death, partly defending the Palace even as it collapses into a golden ruin after it was besieged, partly fighting a secret warfront against a daemonic incursion in the broken Webway underneath the Golden Throne.
All of this is made more galling in retrospect when there were stories written in the past that, due to the situation, should have at least mentioned the existence of the Adeptus Custodes. For example, during the first half of the War of the Beast, they aren't even given a mention even during narration within the Imperial Palace scenes, with the only guard described being members of the Imperial Fists. They aren't even present for any of the battles against the Beast, even as they have an attack moon LITERALLY OVER TERRA FOR SEVERAL WEEKS! Or the civil war that happened at the closing hours of the Age of Apostasy, when the precursors to the Sisters of Battle were embroiled in a full on war with several Legions right on the doorsteps to the Imperial Palace, not making an appearance until the very last minute to put an end to it, and that's after however many years Goge Vandire was being a frothing at the mouth lunatic.
I say all this to point out to anyone who has an issue with Fem Custodes, claiming that they haven't been mentioned before or that it breaks the lore... SOMEHOW. Warhammer lore has never been a sanctified, ironclad thing. It has constantly been written, unwritten and retconned many times over the years, with popular units squatted without reason or an adequate replacement, and an overemphasis on one singular faction (Space Marines) to the absolute abandonment of all others.
Honestly, the addition of Fem Custodes is barely a blip on the radar on the list of worst things ever compared to everything else they've ever done. Is it based on an agenda? Well, yes, probably, let's be honest, but let's also not pretend like Warhammer is some sacred ground completely divorced from our reality. It's a dark satire of Thatcher-era fascism run amok and then retroactively having lore built around it, and for a giant chunk of its run, it was basically a complete sausage fest in the wargame scene because of archaic beliefs that continue to pervade our culture, that women are supposed to be homemakers and childbearers and not play games. This extended many years ago to the game itself based on purchasing habits of the players themselves (and a decision by some executive), who weren't buying female models even though they were available, even when they were mixed in with male models in boxes, and then the lore was written around that when they effectively remade the setting back in third edition in the early 2000s. As a matter of fact, this mentality is so ingrained that you can't buy female models of Guardsmen or Admech (granted the latter it would be very difficult to tell, anyways), even though women are equally represented in both armies in the lore.
The point of all this is to explain that it serves no one to pretend like Warhammer should never change. It can change, it will change, it has to change and has in fact already changed. Do you know why those old movies have those warnings at the front now that basically say views and what was deemed acceptable were different back then? That's because times change, people change, and things must be able to adapt with them or else get left behind in the dustbin of history. And honestly, until about seven years ago, Warhammer was running about 13-17 years stagnant.
None of this is "woke"; that's a term people throw around casually to describe anything that is weird and scary to them because they don't recognize the changes happening in the world around them as they get older. Ultimately Warhammer won't change considerably because of this, or at all. There will just be female Custodes now, and Warhammer as a whole is now slightly less of a sausage fest and that's a good thing. Anyone who claims otherwise is full of shit and is peddling their own agenda, or is just afraid of change and forget how many retcons exist in the setting already that were far worse.
