When Area Marine 2 was first introduced, its debut trailer led gamers to imagine the largest enemy to struggle could be the hungry hordes of Tyranids swarming the Imperium. They’re nonetheless a significant risk, 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 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 warfare referred to 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 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 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 Crimson — who loved lots of freedom and energy as one of many Emperor’s sons — spent lots 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 all these malevolent entities, Tzeentch, reached out to Magnus and began some house Skype calls.

Tzeentch provided to repair up just a little downside the Thousand Sons had been coping with: a rampant mutation referred to as the flesh change. Magnus traded his eye for an answer to the flesh change. This began a sequence of bargains that finally by chance turned Magnus in opposition to 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 just a little paternal insurrection of his personal. He solid an advanced spell, referred to as a rubric, in an try to remedy 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 firstly of the present Period Indomitus to try to cease the Ultramarines primarch Roboute Guilliman from making it to Terra. The Thousand Sons exhibiting up in Area Marine 2 is just a little little bit of a grudge match. As Titus stomps his approach by 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 — nicely, 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 Sequence X; it has no concrete launch date.