Since Space Marine 2 launched on Monday, two million players have descended upon the grim darkness of the 41st millennium, discovering the gothic grandeur and bombastic ultraviolence of the Warhammer 40k universe for the first time. But judging by comments in fan groups across social media platforms, they were not ready for the cyber cherubs.
And who can blame them? From the outside, Warhammer 40k looks like any other machismo sci-fi setting. Those brightly armored, refrigerator shaped Space Marines may predate Halo’s Spartans and Gears of War’s Cog Soldiers, but to an outside observer they’re more or less the same – sci-fi soldiers in power armor. All the grunting and talking about honor and duty is par for the course for any overblown sci-fi action story. None of which prepares you for your first encounter with a flying cyborg baby in Space Marine 2.
Surprised first-timers have taken to various social media platforms, particularly the r/SpaceMarine subreddit, to share their reactions. These are usually a variant of “what the hell is this thing?!”, accompanied by a spattering of choice curse words.
Allow us to explain. Cyber cherubs are one of many kinds of cyborg slave employed by the Imperium of Man, made from a mixture of human tissue and mechanical components. Fitted with crude anti-gravity motors they often perform simple carrying functions, though typically in ritual contexts.
In Space Marine Chapters they may serve in the armory or even in battle as ammo porters, while in religious settings they may swing incense censers high above the heads of the congregation, or carry laud-hailers (megaphones) to broadcast the preacher’s sermon.
Are they made from real human babies? Maybe. Larger ‘servitor’ cyborgs – which you’ll see assisting the tech priests in the hangar bay – are sometimes made from cloned human bodies grown in vats for the purpose, and sometimes from fully grown humans who have been lobotomised as a punishment for breaking one of the Imperium’s many and baroque laws.
We haven’t seen a definitive statement about which source of wetware is used to create cherubs, since most of the time they’re just a background detail, but there are literally hundreds of Warhammer 40k books out there and one might hold the answer.
Dark? Yup. Stuff like this is why we say that none of the Warhammer 40k factions are good guys.
Like many weird elements of 40k, the cyber cherubs owe their origin to the artistic genius John Blanche who shaped the illustrations and concept art of the game and setting for decades. Blanche added hundreds of small and weird details that drew from all kinds of sources, including baroque religious art. The cyber cherubs were just one of many small weird flying things he created. They stuck around, and several cyber cherub models have been made over the years.
The setting is dripping with weird things like this, and it’s part of why we love it. Another thing that may stand out to newcomers who have arrived from other franchises is the absence of women Ultramarines – the battle barge is a massive sausage party. We have a guide explaining the current lore reasons why female Space Marines don’t exist, as well as the business factors which led GW to develop the lore that way when it was first developing the Space Marines in the late 1980s.
Source: Wargamer
