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So, the Imperial Knights codex is out. And in it, there are several examples of female Imperial Knights. Up until this point, they were rare to the point that the only female Knight we had in the fluff was masquerading as a man.

What are your thoughts on this?

I don't really care who's inside the big smashbot. As long as it's killing things, there could be a hermaphrodite chihuahua yanking the gears.

The whole point of 40k is anything is possible. But knowing the community now adays because it's not "lore friendly" they'll probably want it band.

For me I don't care... I mean most knights I like to see have Orks in them and they don't even have a gender.

The Imperial Knight from DoW III was also operated by a high ranking female pilot.

There really is no reason not have any sufficiently skilled pilot operate a knight. IG drafts both men and women, why shouldn't the households do the same?

Let me make myself clear, I like the change. But up until this point, there were less than a handful of female knights. I find it refreshing.

All mine would be controlled by dogs, like in Silent Hill.

I really don't see any reason to limit sex/gender in a fictional setting unless you're going to do something with it in the story.

Man, I read the thread title and got super confused for a second, and then realized you meant female knight pilots.

 Jidmah wrote:
The Imperial Knight from DoW III was also operated by a high ranking female pilot.

I think her dialogue was the only thing about that game I actually enjoyed :(

The game had its moments. Sadly none of them were related to game play.

It makes sense that there are women just as capable as men at piloting a knight.

phillv85 wrote:
It makes sense that there are women just as capable as men at piloting a knight.

Allegedly the ritual of bonding prevented women from becoming Imperial Knight pilots. Glad to see that was walked back.

Now, what I REALLY want is another pilot like Sir Hekhtor, only it is a woman instead.

I'll be annoyed if they ever do female marines because the male/masculine aesthetic is so important for them. Having marines without it would be lame, and having female marines with it would be silly. But I've got no objections to females in any other role, even if its not super realistic. Pilots makes more sense then infantry, but even that doesn't particularly bother me.

I don't want female marines because it's been such a big part of the lore the whole time, and space marines are pretty much the biggest part of 40k, at least on the surface. Would I be happy with women in literally any other role? Absolutely. The lore on knights and titans is considerably lesser than that of marines. I wasn't even aware that the bonding rituals may have prevented women being pilots.

Female Knight Pilot is even in the Codex now, with Lady Karina Griffith having a quote on Page 90.

Edit: just eas the title and assume it was one of those threads, my b, my b.

phillv85 wrote:
I don't want female marines because

Wrong thread, my man.

 casvalremdeikun wrote:
Let me make myself clear, I like the change. But up until this point, there were less than a handful of female knights. I find it refreshing.

Thing is a lot of the stuff we put on the table is limited in number of even unique. Tabletop games are not your rank and file battle army; they are basically elite armies often fighting key battles. Heros of galactic importance come down to do battle.

So even if there's only a couple of female knight pilots its makes sense that they would appear on players battlefields because, lets face it, you've got a Primaris down there fighting the Swarmlord with a Malanthrope in the background. That's already 3 totally individual creatures in the whole galaxy in the same battlefield; that you've also got one of the elite knights pilotted by a female is, well, accepted.



Honestly I wish we could go back a few years to say when Sisters of Battle first game out and there wasn't a huge argument about women in a 40K game as models. It was "ooh cool I want those!". One of the downsides of the net is that it seems to spread and generate its own misery quite readily and far more so than excitement and enjoyment (esp in the very active adult population).

 Ouze wrote:
Man, I read the thread title and got super confused for a second, and then realized you meant female knight pilots.

I too entered this thread trying to imagine imperial knights with boob plate

No female knight pilots was an odd thing they put in for no apparent reason in the initial release then promptly had a female pilot in the novel that came out with it

The reasons given intially were purely cultural and so would at most be limited to specific Knight worlds / Households.

In particular Mechanicus aligned households should just be picking the bes candidate as they really don;t care about gender.

Up until this point, they were rare to the point that the only female Knight we had in the fluff was masquerading as a man

Nope - Fall of Cadia supplement at end of 7th Ed had Baroness Vardus leading her household of House Raven into battle on that planet- that was in the GW main source books for the campaign. Andy Clark's novels have plenty of female pilots

I want an imperial knight model with breasts, which has guns inside there, spraying bullets from the nipples

 casvalremdeikun wrote:
Let me make myself clear, I like the change. But up until this point, there were less than a handful of female knights. I find it refreshing.

Ever since the lancer came out and I painted it, mine has been piloted by a woman in my fluff... so... meh?

If your saying “sweet, they have finally mentioned something that woman pilot knights, even though that’s always been the case... yay”

Then I agree with you, I’ve always been of the mind that just because sometbkng isn’t explicitly mentioned, doesn’t mean it’s not there and female knights come under this category for me, it’s bloody stupid to think and say that only men would be pilots when we have female planetary governors etc. Etc.

Well done to GW for mentioning the obvious, next time can they do it from the start though eh?

Reading Kingsblade I assumed that it was a local Knight House attitude against female 'pilots' as there were several in other books. It goes back to 30k as well - House Vyridion was led by a Baroness in Master of Mankind, for example.

my over all guess is they wanted to go with a GOT vibe initally, there was some blow back as people didn't much care for that so it was dropped.


one can do the whole knightly thing without having females be inelligable. Battletech's done the "big stompy robots in a feudal setting" thing sine day 1, and one of their most famous mechwarriors was the infamous Natasha Kerensky.

BrianDavion wrote:
my over all guess is they wanted to go with a GOT vibe initally, there was some blow back as people didn't much care for that so it was dropped.


one can do the whole knightly thing without having females be inelligable. Battletech's done the "big stompy robots in a feudal setting" thing sine day 1, and one of their most famous mechwarriors was the infamous Natasha Kerensky.

Ah Natasha kerensky, probably one of us THE Most bad ass character in battletech... plus... she drove a warhammer too so that’s also awesome.

 Formosa wrote:
she drove a warhammer too so that’s also awesome.

No, Warhammers are Warhammers, Awesomes are Awesome. Warhammers are not Awesome. There is a whole PPC (and a few tons and secondary guns) difference between them.



But pedantic jokes aside, you are absolutely correct.

On topic, I’m glad to see gender equality where it should be. For the most part the IoM doesn’t care about your plumbing or the color of your skin, as long as you can do your job. That said, it’s a big place and far from homogenous. I wasn’t aware that there was gender bias written into the old Knight fluff. Seems a little unnecessary and silly. It’s one thing for marines, where genetic manipulation is core to their being, so being a boy’s only club makes some sense. But for the squishy bit in a giant stompy robot, less so.

@OP

One of the main protagonists in Master of Mankind is a female knight pilot and head of the house.

 Drudge Dreadnought wrote:
I'll be annoyed if they ever do female marines

I am not taking the bait despite it being very tempting, thank you!

Clearly there can be female knights it's not like their Space Marines.

If I'm honest I never gave a moments thought to whoever is riding around in the big stompy robots, much like I never gave a thought to the people driving the rhino or the Sister playing the exorcist cannon.

For my Iron Warriors, I assume no one is driving - that's what the thing in the front hatch, sealed with rites and chains and blood, is for.

I think the sex of a pilot is irrelevant. What concerns me is the character itself. If a character is well designed, interesting, has a good backstory, or is charismatic and entertaining...the race/sex/etc. is of no concern. However, by the same token don't approach me with "Oh, isn't this cool...this character is a woman, tada!" kind of thing.

I couldn't care less about women in knights, mostly since you literally don't see them. If they want to put some, why not, but it's not important.

Actually the one thing that would be cool would be female IG infantry as far as I'm concerned. Others- I don't care.