40K Mystery: What ARE Guilliman’s Super Soldiers
We’ve seen the blurry minis and some fancy artwork, but what has the Imperium crafted for 8th Edition?
I think it’s obvious that the Astartes are going to get some reinforcements – BIG reinforcements.
For a while folks have been wondering if the Grimdark was going to get it’s own version of Stormcraft Eternals – big burly dudes to be the new standard-bearers of the game – and by total coincidence give everyone something new to buy…
Last week we saw the mystery image folks think may be the new boxed set for 8th edition:
People notes that those marines are pretty tall!
Rumors of new Astartes with “MK.X” Power Armor (what happened to Mk.IX?) are doing the rounds and everyone is getting that tingly feeling!
The weekend video from GW gives some away and continues the story from Rise of the Primarch. We see Guilliman and Cawl talking about the 10,000 year project and the unleashing of the Imperium’s newest badasses. We see them being grown in glowing blue vats. they are described by the Primarch as:
“We have wrought new wonders with the clay of human flesh…Gene-forged beyond the capabilities of their brethren…the truest heirs of the Primarchs legacies.”
And that leads to the big question:
WHAT THE HECK ARE ARE THESE DUDES?
Thoughts
If these super soldiers are even larger versions of the Astartes we have some clues from 40K history to fall back on:
Enhanced Astartes Gene-seed
A portion of all Chapter’s geneseed is tithed to Mars for inspection and study. The official reason for this is to test it’s genetic purity and to put stocks aside to allow new chapters to be created. It’s quite possible Cawl has simply been working on refining the basic Astartes genome for 10,000 years. The original Astartes geneseed was a very watered down version of the Primarch program, so there would be plenty of room for improvement – just work towards improving towards the good primarchs, not the bad ones…
Mechanicus – Astartes
A second option is the Mechanicus taking the already formidable Astartes and augmenting them with various Mechanicus upgrades and enhancements. It wouldn’t be pretty, but it’s probably doable. Who doesn’t like marines with titanium skeletons and laser eyes?
Custodes – Astartes
Another option is to create some type of hybrid between the emperor’s early projects – the mighty and utterly loyal Adeptus Custodes genome and the Adeptus Astartes. It’s unknown exactly how this would work, but hey apparently Centurion Armor has been around for Millenia, so they can retcon anything…
My favorite option and hope. If you are looking for brutish killers that put fear into even Astartes and don’t give a crap about the temptations of Chaos – look no further than the Thunder Warrior genome. After a couple centuries they all burn out and you can just move onto bigger and better programs – or perhaps Cawl could try to extend their lifespans. If Babu Dhakal could figure it out in only a few centuries, I’m sure the Arch-magos could do it in 10,000 years.
~What do you think they are?
