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I’ve just finished reading The End and The Death. I’ve just finished reading the Horus Heresy. I quite liked it. 7/10

Yarrick was my immediate thought when the series began, and the idea of old Old Bale Eye is a great one, but the Annandale stories already cover his key moments and are great so the need isn’t as pressing for me. I fear any meaningful Eldrad story wouldn’t really be possible within the apparent limits of word count, so I’d probably rather not see him either. I think of characters of a similar vintage who haven’t had books, Ulrik the Slayer and Prince Yriel have an awful lot of potential.

The post I was quoting and responding to said “This is exactly correct. But in the case of more recent topics, like changes to the Custodes fluff, we are just talking about the lore, and changes made to it. The biggest and only change to Custodes lore from the last 2 major Custodes depictions are that they are suddenly also female but that is, by its nature, a political issue now“ I’m genuinely unaware how custodes being female is intrinsically political. As a consequence, I am requesting that a definition of what is political is provided to prevent further issues arising.

I respectfully disagree with what you’re saying, but this is *exactly* why a definition of what is contentiously political ought to be provided. I accept that in some things there will never be consensus- in the thread on changes to custodes we were both taking the same point to mean complete opposites, for example- so as a result the board policy needs to be very clearly spelt out to ensure folk know where they stand and avoid the bad feeling that seem to cloud discussion.

This is what I mean about needing a definition of ‘political issue’; if the existence of around 50% of the world’s population is now conversational and verboten for discussion, so be it, but it’d be nice to know.

Downgraded to just one book, as standard for these boxes- “Twice-dead King: Ruin is signed by the author”

Could we please have a list of which social/political issues are decisive and therefore banned? Would perhaps prevent some of them coming up if the board rules were more explicit about what is permitted.

This is the BL subforum, the discussion is about the change on the page, so let’s look at how it affects storytelling potential. My desire for more stories about internal conflict in the Imperium rather than it being engineered by nefarious Chaos agents pushes me to side with @DarkChaplain on the issue of Soritas, but I see no reason not to accept the ‘always has been’ approach to female Custodes from GW. Billy Long-Name, the Custodes Captain needn’t be written any different to Billie Long-Name, the Custodes Captain. Either of them could have a terrible sense of humour, a fierce loyalty to their comrades, a penchant for translating poetry fragments from the Dark Age Of Technology in their downtime, a unique way of wielding a custodian spear and piercingly green eyes. Let’s be honest, BL aren’t going to go anywhere near even suggesting what’s in their auramite undies, let alone directly mentioning it. In a flashback scene, one may receive a tearful “farewell brother” and the other “farewell sister” from an otherwise stoic sibling upon their ascension but otherwise I cannot see any material difference to the storytelling. Im assuming most people like the short story ‘Blood Games’. Here is the opening paragraph, but I’ve changed the gender of the protagonist. I’m certain if it originally continued in this way my enjoyment of the text wouldn’t have been affected. “SHE HAD BEEN circling for ten months. Ten months, and eighteen identities, most of them so authentic they had fooled Unified Biometric Verification. She’d faked out three blind trails to throw them off his scent, one into the Slovakian fiefs, one to Kaspia and the Nord Reaches, and the other a meandering route down through the Tirol to the Dolomite Shrines overlooking the Pit of Venezia. She’d overwintered in Boocuresti Hive, and crossed the Black Sea Basin by cargo spinner during the first week of ice-ebb. At Bilhorod, she had turned back on herself to lose an unwanted tail. She had spent three weeks hiding in a disused manufactory in Mesopotamia, preparing her next move.”

Please, tell me an exclusively male (or female!) personality trait. A person of any gender can have any human personality trait. To take two basic stereotypes Not all men are aggressive; some women are aggressive. Some women are nurturing; some women are not- and likewise men. All people are complex. A good character’s gender obviously influences their personality but shouldn’t define it, which is what attributing different characteristics to different genders does. If you’re consuming media purely through the lens of gender you’re really doing yourself short- there’s so much more to it.

“How a group of men deal with something can be quite different to a group of men and women.” And how a *another* group of men deal with something can be quite different to either. Groups of people who share a gender aren’t homogeneous blobs, in any society there are thousands of factors than can influence one’s worldview and personality beyond gender. The bond between first claw is relatable to me not because like them I was described as a boy in my youth, nor is it because of our shared penchant for flaying our foes; it is because they are really well written and I’ve engaged with human beings on occasion. Going back to Brienne, I found myself relating to her as I read- her larger stature, the fact she wanted to fit in with a group that didn’t really want to accept her and even her awful relationship with her family (and this is despite having a great relationship with mine) because of the quality of the writing despite our different genders. But again, I appreciate that my worldview isn’t universal.

My take on this whole issue is probably woefully simplistic- all that seems to have changed is a few extra letters, adding an ‘s’ to ‘he’ when writing about a single custode makes precious little difference to me; characterisation seems not to have changed, I appreciate, however, that some folk feel more strongly about the issue. What I am intrigued about, however, and I think this is sort of on-topic, is @Captain Idaho’s opinion of Brianne of Tarth, who is conspicuous in her absence in the list of masculine characters- this isn’t a gotcha or anything, I’m just wondering if you’re able to relate to her on the same level?

Series-editing the Dawn of Fire books too

I *think* this is the story o couldn’t remember

Chris Dows’ Scions of Elysia audio dramas are about (relatively) elite drop troops in the guard, so probably fit the bill. Mike Brooks’ Choke Point is a short about Scions and is good. I also recall reading in a story, short or full length, a scene where there is not-so friendly rivalry between regular guardsmen and their more elite counterparts, it could very well be Kasrkin by Albert (which I thought was pretty decent, for what it’s worth), but nothing more than that.