Warhammer 40K: More Macho than Marneus – Meet Ultramarines’ Samuel Dexter
It was the year 1988 and the most badass Ultramarines‘ Master of the Forge was taking names (and hoarding all the suspensors)!
Its easy to forget that at its origin Warhammer 40,000 was a meandering stewpot of fiction – borrowing from here and there – both sci-fi classics and dreck alike. Before “The Grimdark” became firmly canon the game, still in its infancy, meandered all over the place. Sometimes into areas that would be later ret-conned or best forgotten for their own good.
Luckily I have a very old collection…. including White Dwarf 97 from January 1988
Enter the ORIGINAL Ultramarines Master of the Forge
Lets walk down memory lane my friends and look at some of the top ranking officers of that most goody-two-shoes chapter known as Ultramarines. Read on my friends of their Master of the Forge. He who augmented Marneus Calgar with cybernetics and overcame a now dark and hushed chapter secret – before a giant Inquisitorial retcon hook whisked him off the 40k stage.
OK, sit down and grab a beer because we have a LOT to unpack here. Brother Dexter is an ample cornucopia of over the top crazy that has been brushed under the carpet of modern 40K.
- “born to one of the chapter’s female slaves” WHAT! This is the Ultramarines we’re talking about, not the Emperor’s Children.
- “according to a tradition” So apparently the early Ultramarines had SO MANY slave children running around that they had traditions on what to do with them.
- What the heck are “runic manuals”, and exactly how do they give one insight into robotics?
- Dexter “created many of the special features of Commander Calgar’s bionic limbs”. So maybe Dexter is the mystery behind the Gauntlets of Ultramar as well.
- I like that he ALWAYS has 8 (not 7 or 9) plasma grenades on him. Because you never know…
- As a true techmarine Dexter solves any large problem like his las-cutter with ample duct tape and suspensors.
- Don’t you think his custom heraldry up there looks like he may have some Eldar in the family tree?
- Again, 65 and a HALF points?!
- He does rock the mustache and goatee.
Oof. I can see why they retconned this one. Probably for the best…And what’s up with that Aeldari heraldry again? Those early Ultramarines were no strangers to pointy-ears.
