Warhammer 40K: Meet Christo Columbine – Half Navigator, Half Ultramarine – All CRAZY
It was the year 1988 and one man commanded the Ultramarines fleet – Christo Columbine with his third eye, webbed feet, Eldar contraband and all.
It’s 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 like DUNE, Starship Troopers, Judge Dredd, and dreck alike. Before “The Grimdark” became firmly canon, the game, still in its infancy meandered all over the place. Often into areas that would be later ret-conned, or best thrown down the memory-hole for their own good.
Luckily I have a very large, and very old collection…. including White Dwarf 97 from January 1988.
Enter the ORIGINAL Ultramarines Master of the Forge
Today, let’s walk down memory lane my friends and look at some of the top ranking officers, The Masters of the Chapters of that most holy of holies, the goody-two-shoes Ultramarines. Decades later the Masters of the Chapter would be given the serious Grimdark treatment and get a fancy-schmancy set of all-bling-all-the-time minis.
Who remembers these guys?
But Rogue Trader was one of the oddest of ducks. GW pretty much threw anything they could think of at the wall in the late 1980s and waited to see what would stick with the game’s early fans. Read on my friends of the Ultramarines original Master of the Fleet. A down on his luck navigator, with a hint of xenos, who did what he had to do to survive. That is, before a ret-con hook whisked him off the 40k stage for good.
Wait, WHAT Did I Just Read!?
OK, we have a LOT to unpack here. Christo Columbine is a three-eyed barrel of over-the-top crazy that has been brushed under the carpet of modern 40K.
- He’s a navigator.
- Down on his luck and out of cash he sold himself into slavery!
- Then the Ultramarines BOUGHT HIM… Check out Samuel Dexter for more Ultramarines slavery hijinx!
- He was too old to actually accept the Astartes implants, but they took him anyway (apparently those penny-pinching Ultramarines just can’t turn down a good deal).
- Not only is he Master of the Ships, but he also moonlights with the Chapter’s Librarium. I guess that third eye that can see the warp comes in handy.
- He has webbed feet!
- He uses a Shuriken Catapult! (don’t ask, and don’t call the Inquisition, maybe he just got it from a slave-buddy in the Deathwatch)
- He looks a lot like Patrick Stewart (or Fabius bile, pick your poison.)
Also, it’s time to talk about his name… I bet he named the Ultramarines battle barges: Niña, Pinta, and the Santa María
~ I bet these days’ Christo is laying low on Necromunda. I’ll leave you to work out how to best bring him back to the tabletop in style. I’m also really hoping to see some amazing conversions of these guys with modern 40K models!
