Chaos Codex: Where are the New Characters?

I was drifting through the Internet, stumbling across this little special character review of the “new” Huron Blackheart and the “new” Kharn the Betrayer written by Hitting on 3s. One interesting feature was their ‘before vs. after’ look at how Kharn translated from 4th/5th to 6th Edition. A more pressing question, however, came back to me reading this review. Why are there no new special characters in the latest Chaos Codex?

One Question, Two Possible Answers

Lots of things are new and different in Warhammer 40K 6th Edition. The Chaos Space Marines Codex is now hard-cover, full-colour and very shiny. HQ-kits like the Aspiring Chaos Champion are appearing in plastic. Changes everywhere.

Another thing that makes the latest Chaos Space Marines Codex different from all 5th Edition books for Warhammer 40K – with the possible exception of the Sisters of Battle update in the White Dwarf – is that there are absolutely no new named Special Characters. For the first time – as far as I am aware – the selection of named characters in a Warhammer 40K Codex is identical with that of its predecessor.

Why is that? Is this indicative of a “new design philosophy” that will hold for future 6th Edition Codices as well? Or is this unique to the Chaos Space Marines Codex?

New Characters for Warhammer 40K in 5th Edition

Way, way back before Warhammer 40K 5th Edition was released in 2008, the game went through a kind of “minimalist” design philosophy that saw most armies stripped of options and characters. Yet even in that time, the 4th Edition Chaos Space Marines Codex, much maligned for its “less-is-more” approach, added a new face to the cast of characters in the form of Huron Blackheart.

Every single 5th Edition Codex expanded the range characters. Here’s a brief refresher.

Codex Space Marines 5th Edition added no less than six new Characters: Captain Cato Sicarius, Master Scout Torras Telion, Tank Ace Anataro Chronus, Chapter Master Pedro Kantor, Captain Kor’sarro Khan and, last but not least, Vulkan He’stan, who was for years the most popular special character in the game.

Codex Imperial Guard 5th Edition added a full nine new Characters (while dropping Ibrahim Gaunt and the Last Chancers): Knight Commander Pask, Sergeant Lukas Bastonne, Colonal “Iron Hand” Straken, Guardsman “Sly” Marbo, Gunnery Sergeant Harker, Captain Al’rahem, Commander Kubrik Chenkov, Mogul Kamir, Nork Deddog. All new in the Codex.

Codex Space Wolves 5th Edition both revived Njal Stormcaller and Bjorn the Fell-handed, who had been missing in 3rd Edition, and added the original new characters of Arjac Rockfist, Lukas the Trickster and Canis Wolfborn.

Codex Tyranids 5th Edition took arguably the largest effort in giving “characters” to the army. Where 4th Edition Tyranids had no named characters at all (having omitted Old One Eye and the Red Terror), the 5th Edition Codex added Old One Eye back in. It also added the Doom of Malan’tai, the Deathleaper, the Parasite of Mortex and retconned the entire Hive War background for Warhammer 40K just to add the Swarmlord.

Codex Blood Angels 5th Edition added three entirely new characters: Astorath the Grim, The Sanguinor and Chapter Master Gabriel Seth. It also revived Sanguinary High Priest Corbulo, who had gone missing in the Blood Angels’ interim 4th Edition Codex and added a Death Company version of Captain Tycho.

Codex Dark Eldar 5th Edition added three characters: Lady Malys, Baron Sathonyx and Duke Sliscus, while dropping Archon Kruellagh the Vile from the cast.

Codex Grey Knights 5th Edition adopted Inquisitor Karmazov from the Witch Hunters. It also added six new characters: Lord Kaldor Draigo, Grand Master Mordrak, Castellan Crowe, Justicar Thawn and Inquisitor Valeria.

Codex Necrons 5th Edition was, of course, an incisive re-imagination of the Necrons as a whole. Dropping the old, named C’Tan and introducing Necrons with ‘character’ for the first time was a thorough change. The new cast are Imotekh the Stormlord, Illuminor Szeras, Orikan the Diviner, Trazyn the Infinite, Nemesor Zahndrekh, Vargard Obyrion and Anrakyr the Traveler.

The Necrons of 5th and the Chaos Marines of 6th

It is obvious that there has been lots of changes back and forth. The back-to-back contrast of Codex Necrons – the last of 5th Edition – and Codex Chaos Space Marines – the first of 6th Edition – couldn’t be more pronounced. The former is largely defined by adding ‘character’ to a previously (almost) faceless army.

It did so by adding lots of quirky and cool named characters.

Chaos Space Marines, which seem to be the perfect platform for hatching out all sorts of wildly imaginative and grim-dark characters, megalomaniacs, crazies and doomed souls, just got a carbon-copy of the character section it had in the last Codex.

Were There No Ideas For Chaos Space Marine Characters?

I like the established Chaos Characters. Abaddon, Kharn, Fabius Bile. They are like old relatives that you see each Christmas and on every other family get-together. I wouldn’t wanna miss them. But were there truly no ideas for some new, fresh names to take up the fight in the name of the Dark Gods.

Forge World is robbing Black Library blind with their new Horus Heresy series. Not to mention that they’ve added some fun characters such as the Storm Lord Marine turned Berzerker Lord Zhufor to the lore over the years.

Surely, there would have been some room for the Games Workshop studio to add new names as well. A named Helbrute perhaps? A Warp Talon lord? A ‘contemporary’ Black Library character not tied to the Horus Heresy? A named Dark Apostle or Warpsmith to showcase the history behind one person drawn from those “new” HQ-choices?

What Do You Think?

So… what do you think? Has GW decided to “lock-in” the current named characters for 6th Edition after all the back-and-forth in 5th Edition? Or is this unique thing to the Chaos Space Marines Codex, perhaps related to the fact that Forge World is really expanding the cast with their Horus Heresy line?

Would you like to see future 6th Edition Codices add new named characters again? Would you prefer if Games Workshops sticks with the roster that exists so far?

Let me hear your thoughts on this!

Z.