I am begging Warhammer 40K grifters to stop focusing on female Space Marines

Warhammer 40,000 is one of those impossibly big hobbies where, even when you dive deep, it can often still feel as though you’re an outsider trying to understand a new dialect. Asking a question or making a suggestion can occasionally trigger eye-rolls or condescension, some more than others. There’s one phrase in particular that has turned into a rhetorical hand grenade for many communities, specifically on social media — an inconsequential idea seized upon by grifters and used as ammunition in too many flame wars: female Space Marines.

If you’re a longtime 40K fan, those three words may have been enough to make you duck for cover. If you’re not familiar with the hobby, I’ll explain why the topic of female Space Marines has become so contentious — and why, despite the noise, some fans refuse to give up on the idea.

40K’s super soldiers

Warhammer 40K is a tabletop game made by British developer Games Workshop. It’s infamous for having lore so expansive, it’s become its own kind of hobby ecosystem with spin-off campaign books in the same universe, video games, an upcoming Amazon TV series adaptation, animated CGI shorts, novel tie-ins of various qualities, and audio plays. It is a gothic techno-fantasy world set in the 42nd millennium, where humanity is ruled by a cruel theocracy. Its characters live in the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable, a time where there is only war. All that is left, while waiting for the Imperium of Man to fall, is to rage against the dying of the light.

You’re going to keep getting 40K prequel novels, and you’re going to like it

🎲You can also read this post on our sister site, Rascal.news. If you’re a fan of the Warhammer 40,000 setting — and maybe even if you’re not —then you know that the fanbase has a ravenous hunger for everything Space Marines. These transhumanist warriors get the bulk

RogueCass Marshall

Of all of Games Workshop’s many miniatures, none are more popular than the Space Marines. The Space Marines — also known by their more copyrightable title, the Adeptus Astartes — are transhumanist warriors. The fans of every other faction are competing for crumbs of lore, while Space Marine fans are constantly feasting on a constant supply of new models, named characters, books, animations, and other treats.