Who are Space Marine 2’s new Chaos antagonists, the Thousand Sons?

When Space Marine 2 was first announced, its debut trailer led gamers to consider the largest enemy to struggle could be the hungry hordes of Tyranids swarming the Imperium. They’re nonetheless a serious risk, however the latest gameplay trailer revealed the sport’s different antagonist: the Thousand Sons, servants of the God of Change. However who’re these unhealthy guys, precisely, and why are they such a risk 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 had been purged from historical past, their fates unknown. A civil struggle known as the Horus Heresy break up the remaining 18 legions 50/50, with half on the facet 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 fallacious. (He completely did a complete lot of issues fallacious, 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 perfect at stealth, and members of the Loss of life 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 Crimson — who loved loads of freedom and energy as one of many Emperor’s sons — spent loads 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. One in every of these malevolent entities, Tzeentch, reached out to Magnus and began some house Skype calls.

Tzeentch supplied to repair up a little bit downside the Thousand Sons had 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 finally unintentionally 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 interact in a little bit paternal rebel of his personal. He forged an advanced spell, known as a rubric, in an try to treatment the flesh change. It sort 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 at the start of the present Period Indomitus to attempt to cease the Ultramarines primarch Roboute Guilliman from making it to Terra. The Thousand Sons displaying up in Area Marine 2 is a little bit little bit of a grudge match. As Titus stomps his manner by way of Rubric Marines and Tzeentchian sorcerers, I’ll be considering: My dad may beat up your dad.

Tzeentch is a harder 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 — nicely, or a helmet stuffed 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 Sequence X; it has no concrete launch date.