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Made in us
Giggling Nurgling





Thinking more about the Heresy thread about female space marines, I've got a question that has nothing to do with the whys and hows and wherefores and reasoning about whether or not women can be space marines, so let's keep that discussion entirely in the other thread.

My question is entirely hypothetical (unless they make girl marines canon), so here goes.

If female Space Marines were a thing, what chapters would they stem from? Would they be from specific ones? All of them? Maybe the two missing legions? New chapters using new/mixed geneseed?
   
Made in de
Contagious Dreadnought of Nurgle





I think GW would handle it exactly like with Primaris (which was a bigger change in the lore than female Astartes would be if you ask me): some chapters will reject them at first, but pretty soon everyone will accept them because the Imperium is in a dire state (and GW would want everyone to buy even more Space Marines, regardless of Chapter. Probably even Grey Knights).
That's if they're implemented as something new and not just retconned as: they've always been there. In the latter case well, it wouldn't even have to be explained where they're from, they've just been there all along, like Centurions, Grav weapons, Flyers and what not.
   
Made in gb
Longtime Dakkanaut




I think it would be like primaris - some in-universe resistance, but as their introduction coincides with massive casualties for plot reasons and since they have the blessing anf authority of the throne behind them, pragmatism reigns.

I would suspect certain chapters might 'hog the limelight' to midwife their introduction- Space Wolves being the obvious choice to me with their cultural depictions of Valkyries and Shield Maidens, but ultimately in the lore, all chapters would include them.

greatest band in the universe: machine supremacy

"Punch your fist in the air and hold your Gameboy aloft like the warrior you are" 
   
Made in gb
Longtime Dakkanaut






I'm not extremely hot on the finer details of space marine lore, but I feel like the only reasons there are no female marines are that they currently can't happen. I don't see any factions actively rejecting them, but then I guess there's no need for the chapters to do so at present!

I'd expect them to start appearing everywhere. Especially with space wolves, what with the whole Vikings & shieldmaidens aesthetic that they could pull off!

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I am Thoruk, the Barbarian, Slayer of Ducks, and This is my blog!

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Made in se
Stubborn Hammerer




Sweden

More or less all of them, presumably. Especially those Chapters recruiting from worlds and voidholms with large enough populations that the local populace's ability to keep up numbers for future Marine recruitment won't take a hit. Chapters that recruit from a single world or voidholm with a numerically small population of primitives might be more hesitant, since women are far more valuable than men for population upkeep if you do polygamy, which a lot of Imperial cultures undoubtedly would.

This is of course assuming that this phenomenon would have been established since the days the Emperor walked the earth, since we are talking about a hypothetical scenario.

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2021/07/02 10:55:53


   
Made in gb
Ultramarine Librarian with Freaky Familiar





I'd say all of them, unless some Chapters developed customs and cultures wherein they didn't recruit from certain demographics - and that may swing both ways, with some Chapters only recruiting men, and others only recruiting women.


They/them

 
   
Made in gb
Preparing the Invasion of Terra






All of them. Indoctrination is easy and lying is easier. A hyper religious Chapter disapproves? Get that living saint Guilliman to say the Emperor spoke to him directly and order him to do it to save the Space Marines. Problem solved.
   
Made in gb
Incorporating Wet-Blending




U.k

I think it would be interesting if they narrated it mimic the real life debate and have some object indignantly about it going against ancient rules etc but them being shown to be well and truly behind the times. It would be a way of showing the intent behind it without spelling it out in marketing. They would all come round in the end though.
   
Made in us
Shadowy Grot Kommittee Memba






It would probably be set up as a scenario similar to the established formula of "chapter gets virtually wiped out, reinforcements arrived armed with cawl's fancy new technology, but hey look he's also figured out how to fix the problem that's somehow not a problem with major organ transplantation here in M2 and some of the new primaris jump pack troops raining down from the sky to save the....raven guard, or whatever, are female.

"Got you, Yugi! Your Rubric Marines can't fall back because I have declared the tertiary kaptaris ka'tah stance two, after the secondary dacatarai ka'tah last turn!"

"So you think, Kaiba! I declared my Thousand Sons the cult of Duplicity, which means all my psykers have access to the Sorcerous Facade power! Furthermore I will spend 8 Cabal Points to invoke Cabbalistic Focus, causing the rubrics to appear behind your custodes! The Vengeance for the Wronged and Sorcerous Fullisade stratagems along with the Malefic Maelstrom infernal pact evoked earlier in the command phase allows me to double their firepower, letting me wound on 2s and 3s!"

"you think it is you who has gotten me, yugi, but it is I who have gotten you! I declare the ever-vigilant stratagem to attack your rubrics with my custodes' ranged weapons, which with the new codex are now DAMAGE 2!!"

"...which leads you straight into my trap, Kaiba, you see I now declare the stratagem Implacable Automata, reducing all damage from your attacks by 1 and triggering my All is Dust special rule!"  
   
Made in gb
Incorporating Wet-Blending




U.k

How would people like to see them represented on in models?

For me it would just be head options, everything else looking the same. I would like them to introduce some fiction with female marines in, short stories and such, then a new named character, maybe a chapter master of one of the established successor chapters.
   
Made in gb
Preparing the Invasion of Terra






Head swaps and being featured in media content I guess. Not much else that can really be done while staying tasteful.
   
Made in de
Contagious Dreadnought of Nurgle





Indeed. I guess female Stormcasts aren't exactly sexualized but I'm still not sold on their boob armour(and we have that with sisters already) and I think it would generate more backlash if female Marines means to release even more Marine kits and not just an Upgrade sprue.
Btw. Black Library already does a decent Job of representing women, even in Lords of Silence, a novel that's about a DG warband you have several women where currently possible (so everywhere outside of the Plague Marines ).
   
Made in gb
Preparing the Invasion of Terra






I would say some authors for BL write good female characters. ADB and Dan Abnett are both excellent off the top of my head, in fact, ADB specifically uses female mortals to offset the hyper-masculinity of SM characters.
   
Made in fr
Stalwart Tribune





 Karak Norn Clansman wrote:
More or less all of them, presumably. Especially those Chapters recruiting from worlds and voidholms with large enough populations that the local populace's ability to keep up numbers for future Marine recruitment won't take a hit. Chapters that recruit from a single world or voidholm with a numerically small population of primitives might be more hesitant, since women are far more valuable than men for population upkeep if you do polygamy, which a lot of Imperial cultures undoubtedly would.

You know, I've seen that "women shouldn't go to war so they can repopulate" argument several times (not exlusively in this forum) and I find it weird. If you're conscripting enough troops that you can actually lower the population to the point that you need to seriously worry about repopulating, something has gone very, very wrong. It means the army makes up a truly ridiculous proportion of your overall population AND all of it is dying and not coming back home...
If we're looking specifically at space marines' recruitment methods, they only select the best (with whatever criteria for bestness they use) that are also in the proper age range. That should leave a LOT of people of either gender for baby-making, even if we're talking about a feral world with a small population.
   
Made in gb
Preparing the Invasion of Terra






The population would have to be super low to a point where taking some kids every couple of years would completely ruin and destabilise the planetary growth. A Feral World culture is likely to go as far back as maybe 1 CE and it's estimated that the human population sat at around 200-300 million at that point. Those are still stupid big numbers. A Chapter isn't going to take loads of aspirants every single year and honestly, I would say the max would be about 100 aspirants i.e. 0.00005% of a population of 200 million. Some of these 100 aspirants might not even make it past stage one and just get sent back to their tribes/families/keeps, others will survive but not make it to Astartes and become Serfs or Servitors. The dent in the population is so infinitesimally small that it is basically meaningless.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/07/02 15:55:13


 
   
Made in gb
Imperial Recruit in Training






I wouldn't mind if they looked like this.

 
   
Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut




 Tanke Tank wrote:
Spoiler:

I wouldn't mind if they looked like this.


As long as we avoid that thigh gap nonsense on power armor.

Although it would be kind of weird for a new mark of power armor to come out just for female marines.
   
Made in ca
Commander of the Mysterious 2nd Legion





If female marines became a thing I think more notable would be what chapters didn't have them. I suspect among the canon chapters the only one would be the dark angels because "they're too secretive for female marines" (real reason being that if there are women in the dark angels the entire joke falls apart)

Opinions are not facts please don't confuse the two 
   
 
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