Who’re Area Marine 2’s new Chaos antagonists, the Thousand Sons?

When Area Marine 2 was first introduced, its debut trailer led gamers to imagine the largest enemy to combat can be the hungry hordes of Tyranids swarming the Imperium. They’re nonetheless a significant menace, however the newest gameplay trailer revealed the sport’s different antagonist: the Thousand Sons, servants of the God of Change. However who’re these dangerous guys, precisely, and why are they such a menace to Titus and the Imperium of Man?

Over 10,000 years in the past, earlier than the present grimdark setting of Warhammer 40,000, the Emperor of Man created 20 Area Marine legions. Issues instantly began going off the rails; two legions have been purged from historical past, their fates unknown. A civil warfare known as the Horus Heresy cut up the remaining 18 legions 50/50, with half on the aspect of humanity and the Emperor. The opposite half, together with the Thousand Sons, ended up siding with the extra-dimensional and wholly malevolent Chaos Gods.

The Thousand Sons are arguably essentially the most tragic traitor legion, and a few followers have argued that their primarch, Magnus, did nothing improper. (He completely did a complete lot of issues improper, however that’s a complete different article.) Every legion, loyalist or traitorous, has their very own specialization; the Imperial Fists like to fortify, the Raven Guard is the most effective at stealth, and members of the Demise Guard are robust to the purpose of near-invulnerability. Magnus and the Thousand Sons are top-tier pyskers; these guys aren’t simply Area Marines, additionally they have a ton of house wizards of their ranks.

Picture: Saber Interactive/Focus Leisure

Again within the days across the Horus Heresy, Magnus the Pink — who loved quite a lot of freedom and energy as one of many Emperor’s sons — spent quite a lot of time mucking about within the Warp. What he didn’t know, as a result of his dad by no means clued him in, is that the Warp is the area of the Chaos Gods. Certainly one of these malevolent entities, Tzeentch, reached out to Magnus and began some house Skype calls.

Tzeentch supplied to repair up slightly downside the Thousand Sons have been coping with: a rampant mutation known as the flesh change. Magnus traded his eye for an answer to the flesh change. This began a collection of bargains that ultimately by accident turned Magnus towards his dad and loyalist brothers, and ruined his father’s grasp plan for the way forward for humanity.

Making issues worse, the flesh change returned. Ahriman, the favored son of Magnus, determined to have interaction in slightly paternal revolt of his personal. He forged an advanced spell, known as a rubric, in an try and treatment the flesh change. It type of labored; Ahriman stopped the flesh change as a result of the spell turned each non-psyker Thousand Son right into a storm of mud trapped inside their armor. Oopsie doodle!

Picture: Video games Workshop

The Thousand Sons have been a long-running antagonist to the Imperium, and Magnus even confirmed up initially of the present Period Indomitus to try to cease the Ultramarines primarch Roboute Guilliman from making it to Terra. The Thousand Sons displaying up in Area Marine 2 is slightly little bit of a grudge match. As Titus stomps his means by means of Rubric Marines and Tzeentchian sorcerers, I’ll be pondering: My dad may beat up your dad.

Tzeentch is a more durable boss to depict in video video games than the opposite Chaos Gods. Change, manipulation, and destiny are summary ideas in comparison with Khorne’s bloodshed or Nurgle’s plagues. The Thousand Sons are a great way to place a face — properly, or a helmet filled with mud — on Tzeentch and his infinite variety of schemes. I hope we see a few of this Chaos God’s weirder parts, like two-headed demons that may inform the previous and future, however not the current.

Area Marine 2 is because of be launched this winter on PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, and Xbox Collection X; it has no concrete launch date.