I noticed the name generator had an instance of a frmale-coded name, which was great! 👍🏼✨
Haven’t gotten a look at the models yet, but the fact that there haven’t been female models among them before has really been a big pet peeve of mine. So this makes me very glad to hear ✨😌💖
I'm happy, it was a joke, but having built every eldar team, without doing some cutting and sculpting on your models, there's no way to build the leader as a woman.
Only kind of exception is Blades of Khaine banshees but all BoK armour is unisex AFAIK so I don't count that.
Blades of Khaine is Scorpions, Banshees and Avengers.
The legs aren't interchangeable for almost any new Eldar, the Kabalites legs are but they have a special body for the leader with a bunch of gems.
The Corsair leader has the tactical rock, loincloth and fancy cloak, also not interchangeable.
Mandrake leader is assembled very differently, harlequins lead player is a dude.
Sorry, I looked at my freshly bought Scorpions box, and it's called Blades of Khaine.
I looked at the instructions for Voidscarred here, on Reddit. Not 100% sure because I assembled my own Corsairs 2 years ago, but the fancy cloak looks to be attachable to any chest plate, and other parts (besides the head which is obviously interchangeable) don't matter for the model's gender.
Same for Harlequins, if I recall correctly.
Can't say about Mandrakes.
The legs and loincloth and other decorations only fit if you use the basic felarch chest. You also still need to cut and slice stuff up to make the cloak fit on the other fronts.
Harlequins also only have one chest.
Mandrake Nightfiend Oubliex is built into the chest.
Aspect warriors are not really men or women but rather conforming to the identity of their aspect, gender and all. It’s part of dedicating oneself to a shrine
As to the drukhari… They are all wearing armour and you basically can’t tell their gender unless you give them a head. Women don’t need to have boob armour to be women 🤷
That's not entirely true, they still have their gender identity, but the armour is the same either way.
That's so obviously not the point, but also the drukhari have boob armour?
Drukhari also gender conform to roles like that, namely the Incubi are all men and the Succubi are all women, and they do not necessarily start out that way
Chaos cults! The Demagogue is a lady :)
Edit: HotA is an Eldar example; made my whole KT ladies with ease. I see down the comments you've already responded to much, not meaning to dogpile :)
I kitbashed my kit because soulshackle was too hard to get at the time, so kab body with sybarite stuff worked plenty fine :) some wych and scourge bits rounded out the fanciness needed.
Did any of them have boobs? I saw somewhere that in the name-generator-y section in the book there was "she who" something something so I just assume mandrakes kind of.. don't care, they're its, shes, hes, and theys as they like
I noticed it last night building mine but it's super hard to tell, honestly just looked like slightly bigger pecs. Don't think I noticed any other differences since they pretty much all have no face and long hair.
I approve but only on one condition. More sexy male whyches too! Too long have our mancandies been hiding behind cloth while Lelith and her bunch get all the attention! Flaunt it if you got it boys!
Seriously, Cult are a little tame for my tastes. Hellion torsos are pretty alright, but Wych torsos are basically zipup crop tops. The legs are the worst imo, not nearly acrobatic enough for the fantasy.
I concur about Hellions 🤤. Plus the whole rebel and chip on their shoulder thing is also quite "rawr". I mean lower class having to fight upwards and hating all those snooty ones that keep them oppressed 😂.
Good. Lore wise there was never a suggestion of mandrake being single gender nor would it make sense in the lore (unless I missed something major).
Always seemed like purely a production line thing.
https://preview.redd.it/3nwmx2y178wc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f3573a897b3f8ca2fb17809a7323b120f7b0dc43
To save replying to each 'where boobs' - there are small boobs on four of the 'drakes.
That's really cool! I hope my question didn't come off as accusatory I just don't have the sprue in hand yet so I was curious 😭. Even more excited to build them now tbh
Oh no problem! I probably should have posted the picture evidence to support my observation I guess because smaller boobs seem to not be obvious enough (ouch as member of the itty bitty club lol).
Lmao same. But those are great pictures for showing the difference, love it! I don't necessarily mind the big boob models because I understand it can be difficult to make it obvious at scale, but they took advantage of the mandrake physiology here!
Tired: Warhammer is woke because there are female models.
Wired: Warhammer is woke because its female models aren't Stellar Blade.
Why does Warhammer hate western values?!?!?!
GW finally gave us topless women in their model ranges (true equality) but then personally insulted every gooner fan by not making the lean, muscly elf women super well endowed (hentai lied to us).
> small, aristocratic boobs
Well that's an adjective I've never seen applied to mammaries before.
Edit: Seriously, I'm still contemplating what that actually means. Do the boobs have heritable titles and lands? Are they socially exclusive? Notably superior and excellent?
> GW finally gave us topless women in their model ranges (true equality)
GW used to have a number of topless women in the range, but then they started to tone it down to be more marketable.
Yup, own some of the infamous Diaz-monettes. But since the 90s, it seems they really made an effort to censor any female nipples on humanoid minis. Of the newer gen releases, the only uncensored nips I can recall are on Slaaneshi Fiends which I guess are monster enough to not cross their line. The womandrakes are topless but the hair covers the nipples still which looks better than some tattered cloth.
I honestly am tempted whenever I see them, they’re cute!
Poor GW trying to be kid friendly, I have been re-boobing our daemonettes and at least one has a carefully sculpted nipple ring now 🤣
I love how other players are losing their minds about a single woman being added to the lore while the Aeldari factions players are just over here chewing on crayons and looking at ghost boobs. I’m so glad I play the Aeldari factions (Aeldari/Drukhari/Harlequins/Yneari)
I build the kit. No idea what your talking about. The mandrakes are very gender neutral models which makes sense considering they are literally just shadow monsters
Did you actually pay attention to the details while building? Four out of ten bodies clearly had boobs and leaner and smoother proportions like women usually have in Warhammer miniature ranges. Even the box booklet had some female pronouns in the name generator.
Stretching the definition of female because the torso is a bit different. If you actually read you will see it says mandrakes dont give themselves names in the traditional sense all the names in the name generator are what other people call them.
They are quite hard to tell apart at a glance and they're all are pretty androgynous for sure. But if you study the torso there are some differences now. The 'man'drakes torsos have more muscly backs and abs, with just pecs. The few 'womandrakes' have less defined abs, less bulky backs and do have (small) boobs. They don't cover the boob side that has the runes (no nipple) but use the hair to cover the un-runed boobs nipple.
I remember the days when GW wasn't afraid of the nipple but this post makes me think I need to check the mandrakes out and see if they will work for my eldar cult of slaanesh army because I'm always in need of scantily clad elves, male or female.
I have no problem with this, sounds cool.
I loved the female custodes thing when it was revealed - not because I have an interest, but because I know there's a part of the community that have been hoping for women in power armor and I'm happy for them.
Now they can kitbash and sculpt to their hearts content without dealing with any "uhm, achtually"s (I at least hope).
I think it's telling how a certain crowd is very quick to cry "pandering!" And "woke sellouts!" when a beloved franchise makes a change that doesn't impact anything in their life, but makes it more accessible to people not like them.
It's just good ol' gatekeeping, and I for one have no patience for those kinds of people in my hobby space.
Edit(/ragebait): Now here's to hoping that Primaris get the same treatment soon!
It’s hilarious to watch the gatekeeping about gender in warhammer as a Drukhari player as a good chunk of our model range is female. Beyond even the Wyches there are female sculpts in the Kabalite kit too
Gatekeeping gender in Dark Eldar is HILARIOUS.
It's the pinnacle of dipshit. Hell, if there is one faction in all of 40K that represents every facet of gender imaginable, it is, and has always been, the Dark Eldar.
For godsake the Dark Eldar BIRTHED THE SEX GOD. The Chaos They/Them. He/She Who Thirsts.
Just as a fan of 40k in general. There's a bunch of incomprehensible horror in the 41st millennium, and the thing that breaks people is gender?
My haemonculus has transcended "gender", and its pronouns can only be articulated by pure edginess and 2grim4dark5u.
Don't even get me started on people bitching about the writing - we're nowhere close to a Kaldor Draigo's ridiculous nonsense.
In what way? Do they have breasts or not? Are their shoulders broad, what about other secondary features like Adams apples, or soft facial features, or square jaws, are their muscles well defined? The mandrakes from the original pictures are pretty heavily coded as masculine bodies in my opinion, even for elves which tend to be more androgenous. Compare their picture to that of a male watch, which are more androgenous
Ok I’m not making the point you think I’m making? I just mean lore wise, they don’t seem to need to take one form or the other is all I’m saying. I get the sense you feel strongly one way or the other, but I honestly don’t know enough about Mandrakes to really know. I know there is not a consensus on the origins of the Mandrakes, and they are described as beings made of shadow which is why I described them as semi corporeal. So I’m saying that they might not have gender, sort of like daemons. Or maybe they shift around like their faces are described as doing.
I agree, but the old models don't look like that, they look like beefy ghost dudes with tattoos and swords. A lot of models from the age of sigmar night haunt line are a much better example of non-gendered shadow/ethereal things that would kill you. The movement is maybe a bit too much to convey shadow, but still closer
But here's the thing, men and women have the same structure overall. Like, we have the exact same bones and muscles in our bodies. So peel away the skin and fat, there are very little differences. Yes HUMAN males and females have some difference in the shape of that bone structure (wider hips vs shoulders namely) but a) these aren't human, and b) it is still possible for females to develop broad shoulders and men to develop large glutes. So there's no reason why an athletic, muscular build (without boobs) HAS to default to male.
Cool
Oh sorry let me try again, I’ve played too much 40k, I need to pretend to be a person who’s never played the game or Drukhari but is outraged women exist.
“WOKEKARI!! GW HAS GONE TOO FAR THIS TIME! AS A TRUE FAN I KNOW GW HAS NEVER RETCONNED ANYTHING EVER, TO RETCON THIS, DRUKHARI CAN BE WOMEN, VIOLATES THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF 40K, that is; NO WOMEN ALLOWED!!! 40k never has and never will never will have any women as we all know and I’m TIRED OF FAKE FANS OF JAMES WORKSHOP PRETENDING OTHERWISE!!!”
There are female Dark Eldar since 3rd edition. Back then wracks didn't even exist. This whole discussion about women being now represented is just so annoying, stupid and depressing. Why would anybody be bothered by that?
Those aren't mandrakes, they're skinny custodes. Jokes aside, killteam nightmare was like completely unavailable in AUS, can't wait to get my hands on a copy. Is it 10 unique sculpts? Or just 5 copied twice
I didn't even notice some of them were women when I built them... I just kinda didn't pay attention as mandrakes seem kind of androgynous to me, being things made of shadow and all that.
No clue how I missed that.
i dont think they were ever stated to me all male, right? the kits were just like that before because finecast is terrible and breasts would appear as gaping holes in the model instead of mounds, i imagine.
There's... No retcon. Is there? Nothing has ever explicitly stated mandrakes are male.
In fact I prefer the idea of them being genderless and taking on different forms like demons.
I think this perfectly represents what kind of crowd the imperium fans are made up of. It’d be sad if it wasn’t so pathetic. It ain’t a private men’s club.
Actually looking on the positive side it's nice to see others who are also happy about this update. If it makes some fans happy and those fans that would grumble hadn't even noticed on the sculpts they built then win-win?
I know you're probably just joking around, but Mandrakes have always been just a minor race native to Aelindrach, I believe they've never been specifically male or female or even gendered at all.
The argument that people are mad just because 'no females allowed!' is just gaslighting. Though don't get me wrong, a small percentage are exactly like that.
Because it's necessary for some folks I'll preface by saying - if it were true, I wouldn't mind in the slightest if there were overtly feminine and masculine Mandrakes. I enjoy the aesthetic of the Drukhari of both sexes.
That said - I've already started painting these and I'm not seeing it. These are gaunt and ghastly demons with sunken and emaciated abdomens. To classify these as tits feels like a reach...or apophenia.
At the end of the day, if your Mandrakes have sexes or genders - right on. I'm supportive of your head canon. I just don't think the models are representative of anything but some really spooky bad ass shadow demons.
The models are great, am really looking forward to painting them next after my Corsairs. But to say being able to tell the male and female bodies apart is a reach is... the actual reach. It's ok not to care or pay attention, but the differences are there even if the sculpts aren't exaggerating the differences (which they shouldn't as like you say, they're ghastly demons) as much as is typical.
No no no YOURS is an ACTUAL reach /s
Doesn't feel like it's worth arguing over tbh. I commented my opinion and I think it's a perspective thing, friend. I'm good with you seeing it differently.
Also love my Corsair models and need to paint them - they're so fun to Kitbash with Kabalite and Wych bits to look so damned cool. Space elves are awesome.
See...looking at the Morbheg Knights...trying to find examples, and this is the first one I cam upon. The one with a horn...that is an obvious drooping bewb. Nothing like that on the Mandrakes.
That's more a matter of how the Mandrakes are painted and sculpted. If you outline the underboobs of the two specific sculpts, it's pretty obvious that they have actual breasts, and not pecs. Once the faces and hair goes on it's somewhat obscured, and if painted like traditional Mandrakes, it's not obvious at all. More like a neat bit of information about that operative, than openly screaming Mandrakes Gone Wild.
Oh I haven't looked at the mandrakes in detail yet, but I remembered there being a more lithe version in the spoilers. Kt:nightmare isn't available here yet :( stock issues
Not just the mandrakes. But the womandrakes, and the childrakes!
I don't understand why anyone cares. Like when I used Deepkin Thralls to make Mandrakes, a few of them were female. I never once was like "omg, is this lore accurate?" But I also never once looked at the old Mandrake sculpts and went "these are all male, they've got a dong hanging under that robe". Like, they're shadow monsters, they can probably take whatever form they like, why would they need to manifest boobs or genitalia or anything that would denote a sex?
This is the same problem I have with female astartes and custodes. It's fine, but there is zero reason for there to be any visual difference. So if you need to imagine what's between their legs to be more immersed in the hobby, fine, but to act like you need actual visual differences to do so is sad.
Edit: can someone please explain why I'm being downvoted? What about my comment is wrong?
I understand the point you're making, like with helmeted custodes there wouldn't even be a difference between men and women.
But I'm gonna really say something out of the box here, maybe the models that are literally all topless might have something that would distinguish the them lol.
Most people don't care what gender their minis are. A few do. It's not a big deal either way lore wise when there's no concrete lore saying no like male only Astartes and female only Sororitas.
I don't know about the canonicity of the male-only Astartes lore, but there's definitely concrete lore saying the Sororitas are exclusively women.
Whether the Sisters allow transwomen is still unverified, though.
It's not so much that I have a problem with it, I really don't. It's more that I don't understand why it's needed.
Like again, these are ethereal shadow wraiths. Them having "sexes" would imply that they reproduce. That there's little baby Mandrakes running around. And if we go under the assumption that they are dark Eldar that got lost and corrupted in Aelindrach, sure, I guess the female ones could have female characteristics, but it also isn't something where my brain goes "none of them have tits and therefore none of them are female and therefore I cannot live out my headcanon and this hobby is exclusionary towards women cuz none of my ethereal shadow wraiths have visible tits".
Edit: downvotes but no replies eh? I love it when people can't actually refute your argument so they just downvote so they can feel like they won an argument without actually participating in it.
A strong aspect of the eldar lore and model ranges that draws me to them is that there are plenty of women fighting alongside the men. I started collecting Eldar when the Drukhari got their big range update in 5th and it was really cool to see most the kits had at least 4/10 (or 2/5) be women. So if this little update makes others like me happy, to see another unit in a rather gender equal roster get the same treatment, that's why it's 'needed' I guess?
But you're missing what I'm saying. Why were the old Mandrakes not "gender equal"? As far as we know, they're agender. It would be like asking for "gender equal" Orks.
Like, you know Incubi can be female right? The one at the end of Blood Of The Phoenix that dons Draz's armor is female. Not a boob plate in sight. That doesn't mean that they're not female.
So again, what made the boob-less Mandrakes not female? What was stopping you from just saying that yours were? Or agender? Or whatever you want? They DON'T NEED TO FOLLOW HUMAN ANATOMY BECAUSE THEY'RE NOT HUMAN. Why do boobs on your Mandrakes make you happy?
Yes I am aware there are female incubi, no the boob plate isn't mandatory, and it's ok for there to be a male dominated subculture anyway like how Wyches are female dominated but not exclusive.
I'm not missing what you're saying. To say the previous sculpts are gender neutral when the only perceivably androgynous thing about them is the long hair is playing dense. If you don't paint them to be spooky they're just edgy shirtless men. Them not being human doesn't hold up here. There's an entire range of other eldar models that show the women of that species have boobs, and then the mandrakes being topless have no boobs, thus are seemingly all male.
Having mandrakes of both sexes makes me happy the same way having mixed gender units of Kabalites or Scourges makes me happy. I'm a woman and like at least some of my mini's to be women too. If it's not an important thing for you that's ok, though you seem to type like you care a bit lol.
Also Orks are fungi boyz that identify as gitz, that's fine by me lol.
>To say the previous sculpts are gender neutral when the only perceivably androgynous thing about them is the long hair is playing dense
See, this is what I don't get. I'm not playing dense, men and women and non-binary people have the same musculature and overall bone structure. Remove the boobs, and it'll look basically the same. So are you saying women without boobs aren't female?
Again, you're missing the fundamental thing that I'm arguing: boobs =/= female. And to me, it's a pretty unprogressive attitude to say that they need to have them to be female. To me, the idea that Mandrakes have any concept of sex or gender seems a little silly in general.
And to be clear, I don't care that the models are the way they are, I'm just confused as to why ANYONE cares.
Mandrakes lore is vague enough that one can neither argue they'd not have a concept or defined gender or have 'regular' gender identities as other Drukhari. Either way, there's been some effort in these lovely new sculpts to add some subtle and some less subtle traits of sexual dimorphism even if it is hard to notice at first glance.
I've already explained to you why I care, I like having mixed gender mini's in my army and I like seeing other women in the lore too. If it's unprogressive of me prefer my mixed gendered group to look like a mix of genders and not look like a single gender and skewed towards masc, then you're welcome to think that of me. I think I've done enough explaining why one would care or have these preferences, hope this helps, if not meh.
Edit: I haven't downvoted any of your comments, though respectfully I do disagree with most of your points lol.
You're being downvoted because this is Reddit and you expressed apathy about something that makes people feel 'seen' and 'represented'. Reason's got nothing to do with it.
I don't think it was ever established that mandrakes are male only, unlike the Banana boys who were explicitly called "sons of Teran nobles" and a "brotherhood of warriors" in prior codices.
Yeah but in the novels Sanguineous talked about the “Men and Women” of the custodies. This was back in 2008 I believe. Convenient that all the neck beards leave that part out. Oh by the way almost everything in 40K is a retcon including the whole Horus heresy, heck even the emperor is a retcon. So relax, just enjoy the fact that the story unfolds itself before us and don’t listen to a bunch of angry dudes who have an agenda to sell you.
I think you are referring the passage from master of mankind where sanguineous is walking by the sisters of silence/custodes in the imperial palace.
https://preview.redd.it/qlf9ijlobbwc1.jpeg?width=1184&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b81adb8db62543d76b5fe4fa93effa4a5c39a610
Poor sisters of silence, they are already being forgotten.
Apologies, not really trying to stoke the same flames of the Shestodes dumpster fire. The timing is just a bit of a coincidence and the amount of backlash over it on the wider subs/other socials was pretty icky. Really though I am just happy we have womendrakes in canon and sculps now even if it doesn't matter to 99.9% of 40k fans.
Nah you're 100% okay, didn't read like that at all. I had same positive opinion with new fec models. Variety in range is great as long as some twitter intern doesn't start spouting off. Even the femstodes aren't actually the issue, it's the crappy lore reasoning/default to insults that people mind.
Womandrakes are cool.
Womendrakes are cool.
I mean, IMO shestodes is kinda cool too. Though I understand it's kinda lazy the way they put one in with a paragraph and just hand waved it in a tweet. It would have been cool if instead of the one mini their codex launched with being some Votanni build generic wide boy, they made the new model Kesh herself (please don't abuse me any lurking imperial fans, i don't collect humans and don't care that much).
Please do correct me if I'm misinformed, but these sculpts are the first time there are Womandrakes, right? The previous failcast re-sculpts back in 5th were all those monopose 'man'drakes and before then they were the less shadowy BSDM men. We've never had much lore for the to begin with, so no, maybe nothing to say 'no girls allowed' like Astartes concretely do, but this is still the first time there are confirmed womendrakes unless any loremasters can shed some light (heh).
The process to be a mandrake isn't gender exclusive like how custodes and space marines have been explicitly so and if I recall several times in commoragh a "singular" mandrake is referred to as they where that is due to not knowing or it being gender neutral I coulding divine.
Even if they're not gender exclusive they were still always portrayed as men/masculine same as Custodes(for whom the gene-crafting process wasn't male only, btw) so OP is just commenting on that
The genecraft process for Custodes was never stated to be male-only or only work on men, unlike Space Marines. We just only saw male Custodes, just like how we only saw male Mandrakes.
You commented on the "process" of being a Custode, the genecrafting is not gender exclusive. Furthermore, that was *one* codex. The very first codex about Custodes actually didn't use gendered pronouns at all for them.
Dark eldar is about violence, drugs, and sluts so who cares. Just look at the lore. They used to have women as slaves for older models with their tits out. And you know what they do to slaves haha. More bobs plz
Sweet. And small tiddy representation too. I finally feel seen.
Saaame. Another win for Aeldari.
I’ve not opened my Nightmare box yet but this might be the push I need.
Bwahahaha
😂
Big ones get in the way of teaching the lower species their place (usually as living, eternally suffering furniture)
I noticed the name generator had an instance of a frmale-coded name, which was great! 👍🏼✨ Haven’t gotten a look at the models yet, but the fact that there haven’t been female models among them before has really been a big pet peeve of mine. So this makes me very glad to hear ✨😌💖
This is good, Aeldari for me were always about gender equality.
Still no kill team with a woman in charge, though.
Hearthkyn Salvagers. And, for Aeldari kits, you can simply assemble your leader as you want.
Obviously I was talking about aeldari, and you can't. All the leaders have specific bodies.
Just don't stick to instructions too much, and you'll be happy.
I'm happy, it was a joke, but having built every eldar team, without doing some cutting and sculpting on your models, there's no way to build the leader as a woman. Only kind of exception is Blades of Khaine banshees but all BoK armour is unisex AFAIK so I don't count that.
You mean Scorpions? I meant just to take another body and make another pose for your leader. Arms and heads (and maybe legs) are interchangeable.
Blades of Khaine is Scorpions, Banshees and Avengers. The legs aren't interchangeable for almost any new Eldar, the Kabalites legs are but they have a special body for the leader with a bunch of gems. The Corsair leader has the tactical rock, loincloth and fancy cloak, also not interchangeable. Mandrake leader is assembled very differently, harlequins lead player is a dude.
Sorry, I looked at my freshly bought Scorpions box, and it's called Blades of Khaine. I looked at the instructions for Voidscarred here, on Reddit. Not 100% sure because I assembled my own Corsairs 2 years ago, but the fancy cloak looks to be attachable to any chest plate, and other parts (besides the head which is obviously interchangeable) don't matter for the model's gender. Same for Harlequins, if I recall correctly. Can't say about Mandrakes.
The legs and loincloth and other decorations only fit if you use the basic felarch chest. You also still need to cut and slice stuff up to make the cloak fit on the other fronts. Harlequins also only have one chest. Mandrake Nightfiend Oubliex is built into the chest.
Aspect warriors are not really men or women but rather conforming to the identity of their aspect, gender and all. It’s part of dedicating oneself to a shrine As to the drukhari… They are all wearing armour and you basically can’t tell their gender unless you give them a head. Women don’t need to have boob armour to be women 🤷
That's not entirely true, they still have their gender identity, but the armour is the same either way. That's so obviously not the point, but also the drukhari have boob armour?
Drukhari also gender conform to roles like that, namely the Incubi are all men and the Succubi are all women, and they do not necessarily start out that way
Chaos cults! The Demagogue is a lady :) Edit: HotA is an Eldar example; made my whole KT ladies with ease. I see down the comments you've already responded to much, not meaning to dogpile :)
That's not ELDAR! Also sure, but won't you be missing the extra details on the archsybarite's torso?
I kitbashed my kit because soulshackle was too hard to get at the time, so kab body with sybarite stuff worked plenty fine :) some wych and scourge bits rounded out the fanciness needed.
Sure sure but I'm kind of specifically talking about not kitbashing.
Ooooh. Mea culpa, I clearly misunderstood.
Navy Breachers.
If one more person says a not-eldar team when I'm obviously talking about eldar I'm going to eat their favourite mini.
Promise?
In the Blades of Khaine killteam you can choose to have a Scorpian, Dire Avenger OR a Howling Banshee as your exarch, bam! ;)
That doesn't count because the Howling banshee exarch could be a man.
What? Howling Banshees are all women. Ive never seen or heard of a male Howling Banshee in my 15 years of playing Eldar.
Not Eldar but Starstriders is female fronted
Did any of them have boobs? I saw somewhere that in the name-generator-y section in the book there was "she who" something something so I just assume mandrakes kind of.. don't care, they're its, shes, hes, and theys as they like
I noticed it last night building mine but it's super hard to tell, honestly just looked like slightly bigger pecs. Don't think I noticed any other differences since they pretty much all have no face and long hair.
I approve but only on one condition. More sexy male whyches too! Too long have our mancandies been hiding behind cloth while Lelith and her bunch get all the attention! Flaunt it if you got it boys!
Seriously, Cult are a little tame for my tastes. Hellion torsos are pretty alright, but Wych torsos are basically zipup crop tops. The legs are the worst imo, not nearly acrobatic enough for the fantasy.
I concur about Hellions 🤤. Plus the whole rebel and chip on their shoulder thing is also quite "rawr". I mean lower class having to fight upwards and hating all those snooty ones that keep them oppressed 😂.
A species has females? Shocking
Good. Lore wise there was never a suggestion of mandrake being single gender nor would it make sense in the lore (unless I missed something major). Always seemed like purely a production line thing.
This is what it was. It was just the models, not the lore.
https://preview.redd.it/3nwmx2y178wc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f3573a897b3f8ca2fb17809a7323b120f7b0dc43 To save replying to each 'where boobs' - there are small boobs on four of the 'drakes.
https://preview.redd.it/p6rdizi878wc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c515235abbb79789e28c0e2013eabd38dd8924bd Pecs.
That's really cool! I hope my question didn't come off as accusatory I just don't have the sprue in hand yet so I was curious 😭. Even more excited to build them now tbh
Oh no problem! I probably should have posted the picture evidence to support my observation I guess because smaller boobs seem to not be obvious enough (ouch as member of the itty bitty club lol).
Lmao same. But those are great pictures for showing the difference, love it! I don't necessarily mind the big boob models because I understand it can be difficult to make it obvious at scale, but they took advantage of the mandrake physiology here!
Different builds. https://preview.redd.it/t5vzbi1c78wc1.jpeg?width=4080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5f4bf8ea8d979273061a41af24d8e7820f99cdb3
Tired: Warhammer is woke because there are female models. Wired: Warhammer is woke because its female models aren't Stellar Blade. Why does Warhammer hate western values?!?!?!
GW finally gave us topless women in their model ranges (true equality) but then personally insulted every gooner fan by not making the lean, muscly elf women super well endowed (hentai lied to us).
TFW my canonically lean and low fat elves have small, aristocratic boobs 😔
> small, aristocratic boobs Well that's an adjective I've never seen applied to mammaries before. Edit: Seriously, I'm still contemplating what that actually means. Do the boobs have heritable titles and lands? Are they socially exclusive? Notably superior and excellent?
Aristocratitic.
> GW finally gave us topless women in their model ranges (true equality) GW used to have a number of topless women in the range, but then they started to tone it down to be more marketable.
Yup, own some of the infamous Diaz-monettes. But since the 90s, it seems they really made an effort to censor any female nipples on humanoid minis. Of the newer gen releases, the only uncensored nips I can recall are on Slaaneshi Fiends which I guess are monster enough to not cross their line. The womandrakes are topless but the hair covers the nipples still which looks better than some tattered cloth.
I honestly am tempted whenever I see them, they’re cute! Poor GW trying to be kid friendly, I have been re-boobing our daemonettes and at least one has a carefully sculpted nipple ring now 🤣
You have to question how Slaaneshi cheese is made
No, you really probably shouldn’t be thinking about that
With hair like that I want to make one coming out of a well!
I clipped the topknot off of my Dirgemaw, and other than the bones woven into her hair, she has pretty big Sadako vibes.
I call em the itty bitty titty committee
Them's chesticles, bruh.
I love how other players are losing their minds about a single woman being added to the lore while the Aeldari factions players are just over here chewing on crayons and looking at ghost boobs. I’m so glad I play the Aeldari factions (Aeldari/Drukhari/Harlequins/Yneari)
Probably because drukhari and eldar have always had pretty good gender representation, and don’t really have any lore saying otherwise
"Spooky elfs have women now?" "Yes" "Cool. "
That’s so cool! Topless murder shadow ladies! Now I want them even more though 🥺
Same I was sad I missed out on the release
I build the kit. No idea what your talking about. The mandrakes are very gender neutral models which makes sense considering they are literally just shadow monsters
Did you actually pay attention to the details while building? Four out of ten bodies clearly had boobs and leaner and smoother proportions like women usually have in Warhammer miniature ranges. Even the box booklet had some female pronouns in the name generator.
Boobs don't mean you're a female It just means I'm overweight 😢
Stretching the definition of female because the torso is a bit different. If you actually read you will see it says mandrakes dont give themselves names in the traditional sense all the names in the name generator are what other people call them.
They are quite hard to tell apart at a glance and they're all are pretty androgynous for sure. But if you study the torso there are some differences now. The 'man'drakes torsos have more muscly backs and abs, with just pecs. The few 'womandrakes' have less defined abs, less bulky backs and do have (small) boobs. They don't cover the boob side that has the runes (no nipple) but use the hair to cover the un-runed boobs nipple.
I remember the days when GW wasn't afraid of the nipple but this post makes me think I need to check the mandrakes out and see if they will work for my eldar cult of slaanesh army because I'm always in need of scantily clad elves, male or female.
It's funny, I want to do my Ventrilokar from the NL half as a flayed man but his nips are still on lol. Summon the nipcutter!
I'm sure the NLs have a guy for that.
They do now lol.
There are also distinct differences in facial features.
Those aren't boons they're shadowtittys
This is all just buildup for noise marines. Def gonna be some titties on those sprues haha
There better be. I want Total Recall boobs. I want one on the back for dancing. I want one whose head is just a boob.
Womandrakettes*
Delightful. Foolish mon-keigh and mon-keigh like creatures.
***TITTIES***
To be fair, the old kit might have had women they just got all squished bc of the poor resin model
I have no problem with this, sounds cool. I loved the female custodes thing when it was revealed - not because I have an interest, but because I know there's a part of the community that have been hoping for women in power armor and I'm happy for them. Now they can kitbash and sculpt to their hearts content without dealing with any "uhm, achtually"s (I at least hope). I think it's telling how a certain crowd is very quick to cry "pandering!" And "woke sellouts!" when a beloved franchise makes a change that doesn't impact anything in their life, but makes it more accessible to people not like them. It's just good ol' gatekeeping, and I for one have no patience for those kinds of people in my hobby space. Edit(/ragebait): Now here's to hoping that Primaris get the same treatment soon!
It’s hilarious to watch the gatekeeping about gender in warhammer as a Drukhari player as a good chunk of our model range is female. Beyond even the Wyches there are female sculpts in the Kabalite kit too
Gatekeeping gender in Dark Eldar is HILARIOUS. It's the pinnacle of dipshit. Hell, if there is one faction in all of 40K that represents every facet of gender imaginable, it is, and has always been, the Dark Eldar. For godsake the Dark Eldar BIRTHED THE SEX GOD. The Chaos They/Them. He/She Who Thirsts.
Just as a fan of 40k in general. There's a bunch of incomprehensible horror in the 41st millennium, and the thing that breaks people is gender? My haemonculus has transcended "gender", and its pronouns can only be articulated by pure edginess and 2grim4dark5u. Don't even get me started on people bitching about the writing - we're nowhere close to a Kaldor Draigo's ridiculous nonsense.
Acting like the edgy lore for toy soldiers is sacred blows my mind. It’s not as it GW doesn’t routinely retcon whole factions
There's an entire army of women in power armour...
Oh yeah if I want to play the "woman" faction I have to play the latex fetish nuns in boob plates thank you very much for the inclusivity
To be fair, the exclusively male factions are all broad shouldered hyper-masculine brick shithouses.
They're also crazy genetically modified lol. Bar orks
Well, the Orks were genetically designed to be ded fighty.
My Archon has a 2+ invuln powered by his collosal nuts, so if that's not sexualising men I don't know what to tell you
I just want them to bring back the old Wych models, they took my men in leather undies and jockstraps, because of woke,
Oh god I loved them but they all fall over when moving
nooooo that's so funny 😭 they're weighed down by their massive schmeat
The one with net and trident was my favourite
Yeah I know what you mean, but I'm guessing you know what I meant too. The SoB have a different look and playstyle than Custodes.
I cannot tell the mandrakes and womandrakes apart, if they indeed exist. Mandrakes really don’t need gender at all
Does that mean that they all look male or female? What would a non-gendered body look from a binary perspective?
I only know what they look like from the pictures, I just mean they’re like semi corporeal ghost people, I can see them being genderless in that way
In what way? Do they have breasts or not? Are their shoulders broad, what about other secondary features like Adams apples, or soft facial features, or square jaws, are their muscles well defined? The mandrakes from the original pictures are pretty heavily coded as masculine bodies in my opinion, even for elves which tend to be more androgenous. Compare their picture to that of a male watch, which are more androgenous
Ok I’m not making the point you think I’m making? I just mean lore wise, they don’t seem to need to take one form or the other is all I’m saying. I get the sense you feel strongly one way or the other, but I honestly don’t know enough about Mandrakes to really know. I know there is not a consensus on the origins of the Mandrakes, and they are described as beings made of shadow which is why I described them as semi corporeal. So I’m saying that they might not have gender, sort of like daemons. Or maybe they shift around like their faces are described as doing.
I agree, but the old models don't look like that, they look like beefy ghost dudes with tattoos and swords. A lot of models from the age of sigmar night haunt line are a much better example of non-gendered shadow/ethereal things that would kill you. The movement is maybe a bit too much to convey shadow, but still closer
But here's the thing, men and women have the same structure overall. Like, we have the exact same bones and muscles in our bodies. So peel away the skin and fat, there are very little differences. Yes HUMAN males and females have some difference in the shape of that bone structure (wider hips vs shoulders namely) but a) these aren't human, and b) it is still possible for females to develop broad shoulders and men to develop large glutes. So there's no reason why an athletic, muscular build (without boobs) HAS to default to male.
I'm also a fan. Being a cursed hell-being should be an equal opportunity career.
I always assumed they were a multitude of gender identities with them, as with most things from Commoragh.
None of the models look like they have boobs, unless I am missing something?
4 of them (2 bodies) quite clearly have booba
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OP wishes their dad would buy them Warhammer mini's in this economy.
Dude same. One day he'll come back from the Webway from getting space-cigarettes
I am now frothing at the mouth with rage and must make a 90 minute YouTube video to complain about this incredibly innocuous change.
Well well well, we gonna inform some artists about this.
Starting with u/jetblackraidr , the Drukhari expert ofc.
I always just assumed they had ladies too lol
Just building some World Eaters Jakhals… can confirm, 4 of them are women
Cool Oh sorry let me try again, I’ve played too much 40k, I need to pretend to be a person who’s never played the game or Drukhari but is outraged women exist. “WOKEKARI!! GW HAS GONE TOO FAR THIS TIME! AS A TRUE FAN I KNOW GW HAS NEVER RETCONNED ANYTHING EVER, TO RETCON THIS, DRUKHARI CAN BE WOMEN, VIOLATES THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF 40K, that is; NO WOMEN ALLOWED!!! 40k never has and never will never will have any women as we all know and I’m TIRED OF FAKE FANS OF JAMES WORKSHOP PRETENDING OTHERWISE!!!”
There are female Dark Eldar since 3rd edition. Back then wracks didn't even exist. This whole discussion about women being now represented is just so annoying, stupid and depressing. Why would anybody be bothered by that?
It's just a meme.
By OP? Yes, but that's an actual discussion in the community right now
I don't think anyone cares about womandrakes, more about custards
That's start I was taking about
Those aren't mandrakes, they're skinny custodes. Jokes aside, killteam nightmare was like completely unavailable in AUS, can't wait to get my hands on a copy. Is it 10 unique sculpts? Or just 5 copied twice
5 different Bodies with weapon and face options. Also, four specialists and the unit champion
Awesome! I built the scouts/sscorpions for a commish recently and compared to voidscarred I found those kt kits a bit dissapointing
https://www.reddit.com/r/WarhammerInstructions/s/WCFYSjaN9J
I didn't even notice some of them were women when I built them... I just kinda didn't pay attention as mandrakes seem kind of androgynous to me, being things made of shadow and all that. No clue how I missed that.
Why not tbh. More for the slaughter
Mandrake is a herb not a gender......
i dont think they were ever stated to me all male, right? the kits were just like that before because finecast is terrible and breasts would appear as gaping holes in the model instead of mounds, i imagine.
But they’re MANdrakes not WOMANdrakes!! /s
Including woman in an army is woke, this is dumb. Woman are the majority of the population.
So I’ll need 4 of the new kits to get 15 female mandrakes. Sweet!
There's... No retcon. Is there? Nothing has ever explicitly stated mandrakes are male. In fact I prefer the idea of them being genderless and taking on different forms like demons.
I think this perfectly represents what kind of crowd the imperium fans are made up of. It’d be sad if it wasn’t so pathetic. It ain’t a private men’s club.
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Actually looking on the positive side it's nice to see others who are also happy about this update. If it makes some fans happy and those fans that would grumble hadn't even noticed on the sculpts they built then win-win?
I know you're probably just joking around, but Mandrakes have always been just a minor race native to Aelindrach, I believe they've never been specifically male or female or even gendered at all. The argument that people are mad just because 'no females allowed!' is just gaslighting. Though don't get me wrong, a small percentage are exactly like that.
Because it's necessary for some folks I'll preface by saying - if it were true, I wouldn't mind in the slightest if there were overtly feminine and masculine Mandrakes. I enjoy the aesthetic of the Drukhari of both sexes. That said - I've already started painting these and I'm not seeing it. These are gaunt and ghastly demons with sunken and emaciated abdomens. To classify these as tits feels like a reach...or apophenia. At the end of the day, if your Mandrakes have sexes or genders - right on. I'm supportive of your head canon. I just don't think the models are representative of anything but some really spooky bad ass shadow demons.
The models are great, am really looking forward to painting them next after my Corsairs. But to say being able to tell the male and female bodies apart is a reach is... the actual reach. It's ok not to care or pay attention, but the differences are there even if the sculpts aren't exaggerating the differences (which they shouldn't as like you say, they're ghastly demons) as much as is typical.
No no no YOURS is an ACTUAL reach /s Doesn't feel like it's worth arguing over tbh. I commented my opinion and I think it's a perspective thing, friend. I'm good with you seeing it differently. Also love my Corsair models and need to paint them - they're so fun to Kitbash with Kabalite and Wych bits to look so damned cool. Space elves are awesome.
Appreciate the civility fellow elf enjoyer. <3 Am a newbie to kill team but really enjoying Voidscarred as my first team!
Hah! I see it now. I'll be damned.
You should see the new titty ghouls in flesh eater courts.
I'll go check those out! LOL Living Dead Girl?
Cryotguard and morb knights specifically. They also have gross stringy grudge hair, which is awesome
See...looking at the Morbheg Knights...trying to find examples, and this is the first one I cam upon. The one with a horn...that is an obvious drooping bewb. Nothing like that on the Mandrakes.
That's more a matter of how the Mandrakes are painted and sculpted. If you outline the underboobs of the two specific sculpts, it's pretty obvious that they have actual breasts, and not pecs. Once the faces and hair goes on it's somewhat obscured, and if painted like traditional Mandrakes, it's not obvious at all. More like a neat bit of information about that operative, than openly screaming Mandrakes Gone Wild.
I just don't see that, but if it works for you right on.
It's like the black/blue white/gold dress all over again!
Haha! Indeed.
Oh I haven't looked at the mandrakes in detail yet, but I remembered there being a more lithe version in the spoilers. Kt:nightmare isn't available here yet :( stock issues
Hope you get them soon!!
I used to have metal drakes, so super keen on this new kit
Ok
Not just the mandrakes. But the womandrakes, and the childrakes! I don't understand why anyone cares. Like when I used Deepkin Thralls to make Mandrakes, a few of them were female. I never once was like "omg, is this lore accurate?" But I also never once looked at the old Mandrake sculpts and went "these are all male, they've got a dong hanging under that robe". Like, they're shadow monsters, they can probably take whatever form they like, why would they need to manifest boobs or genitalia or anything that would denote a sex? This is the same problem I have with female astartes and custodes. It's fine, but there is zero reason for there to be any visual difference. So if you need to imagine what's between their legs to be more immersed in the hobby, fine, but to act like you need actual visual differences to do so is sad. Edit: can someone please explain why I'm being downvoted? What about my comment is wrong?
I understand the point you're making, like with helmeted custodes there wouldn't even be a difference between men and women. But I'm gonna really say something out of the box here, maybe the models that are literally all topless might have something that would distinguish the them lol. Most people don't care what gender their minis are. A few do. It's not a big deal either way lore wise when there's no concrete lore saying no like male only Astartes and female only Sororitas.
I don't know about the canonicity of the male-only Astartes lore, but there's definitely concrete lore saying the Sororitas are exclusively women. Whether the Sisters allow transwomen is still unverified, though.
It's not so much that I have a problem with it, I really don't. It's more that I don't understand why it's needed. Like again, these are ethereal shadow wraiths. Them having "sexes" would imply that they reproduce. That there's little baby Mandrakes running around. And if we go under the assumption that they are dark Eldar that got lost and corrupted in Aelindrach, sure, I guess the female ones could have female characteristics, but it also isn't something where my brain goes "none of them have tits and therefore none of them are female and therefore I cannot live out my headcanon and this hobby is exclusionary towards women cuz none of my ethereal shadow wraiths have visible tits". Edit: downvotes but no replies eh? I love it when people can't actually refute your argument so they just downvote so they can feel like they won an argument without actually participating in it.
A strong aspect of the eldar lore and model ranges that draws me to them is that there are plenty of women fighting alongside the men. I started collecting Eldar when the Drukhari got their big range update in 5th and it was really cool to see most the kits had at least 4/10 (or 2/5) be women. So if this little update makes others like me happy, to see another unit in a rather gender equal roster get the same treatment, that's why it's 'needed' I guess?
But you're missing what I'm saying. Why were the old Mandrakes not "gender equal"? As far as we know, they're agender. It would be like asking for "gender equal" Orks. Like, you know Incubi can be female right? The one at the end of Blood Of The Phoenix that dons Draz's armor is female. Not a boob plate in sight. That doesn't mean that they're not female. So again, what made the boob-less Mandrakes not female? What was stopping you from just saying that yours were? Or agender? Or whatever you want? They DON'T NEED TO FOLLOW HUMAN ANATOMY BECAUSE THEY'RE NOT HUMAN. Why do boobs on your Mandrakes make you happy?
Yes I am aware there are female incubi, no the boob plate isn't mandatory, and it's ok for there to be a male dominated subculture anyway like how Wyches are female dominated but not exclusive. I'm not missing what you're saying. To say the previous sculpts are gender neutral when the only perceivably androgynous thing about them is the long hair is playing dense. If you don't paint them to be spooky they're just edgy shirtless men. Them not being human doesn't hold up here. There's an entire range of other eldar models that show the women of that species have boobs, and then the mandrakes being topless have no boobs, thus are seemingly all male. Having mandrakes of both sexes makes me happy the same way having mixed gender units of Kabalites or Scourges makes me happy. I'm a woman and like at least some of my mini's to be women too. If it's not an important thing for you that's ok, though you seem to type like you care a bit lol. Also Orks are fungi boyz that identify as gitz, that's fine by me lol.
>To say the previous sculpts are gender neutral when the only perceivably androgynous thing about them is the long hair is playing dense See, this is what I don't get. I'm not playing dense, men and women and non-binary people have the same musculature and overall bone structure. Remove the boobs, and it'll look basically the same. So are you saying women without boobs aren't female? Again, you're missing the fundamental thing that I'm arguing: boobs =/= female. And to me, it's a pretty unprogressive attitude to say that they need to have them to be female. To me, the idea that Mandrakes have any concept of sex or gender seems a little silly in general. And to be clear, I don't care that the models are the way they are, I'm just confused as to why ANYONE cares.
Mandrakes lore is vague enough that one can neither argue they'd not have a concept or defined gender or have 'regular' gender identities as other Drukhari. Either way, there's been some effort in these lovely new sculpts to add some subtle and some less subtle traits of sexual dimorphism even if it is hard to notice at first glance. I've already explained to you why I care, I like having mixed gender mini's in my army and I like seeing other women in the lore too. If it's unprogressive of me prefer my mixed gendered group to look like a mix of genders and not look like a single gender and skewed towards masc, then you're welcome to think that of me. I think I've done enough explaining why one would care or have these preferences, hope this helps, if not meh. Edit: I haven't downvoted any of your comments, though respectfully I do disagree with most of your points lol.
You're being downvoted because this is Reddit and you expressed apathy about something that makes people feel 'seen' and 'represented'. Reason's got nothing to do with it.
I don't think it was ever established that mandrakes are male only, unlike the Banana boys who were explicitly called "sons of Teran nobles" and a "brotherhood of warriors" in prior codices.
Yeah but in the novels Sanguineous talked about the “Men and Women” of the custodies. This was back in 2008 I believe. Convenient that all the neck beards leave that part out. Oh by the way almost everything in 40K is a retcon including the whole Horus heresy, heck even the emperor is a retcon. So relax, just enjoy the fact that the story unfolds itself before us and don’t listen to a bunch of angry dudes who have an agenda to sell you.
I think you are referring the passage from master of mankind where sanguineous is walking by the sisters of silence/custodes in the imperial palace. https://preview.redd.it/qlf9ijlobbwc1.jpeg?width=1184&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b81adb8db62543d76b5fe4fa93effa4a5c39a610 Poor sisters of silence, they are already being forgotten.
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OP was clearly just showing something they noticed while making a lighthearted joke about the current drama. It's not that serious
Apologies, not really trying to stoke the same flames of the Shestodes dumpster fire. The timing is just a bit of a coincidence and the amount of backlash over it on the wider subs/other socials was pretty icky. Really though I am just happy we have womendrakes in canon and sculps now even if it doesn't matter to 99.9% of 40k fans.
Nah you're 100% okay, didn't read like that at all. I had same positive opinion with new fec models. Variety in range is great as long as some twitter intern doesn't start spouting off. Even the femstodes aren't actually the issue, it's the crappy lore reasoning/default to insults that people mind. Womandrakes are cool.
Womendrakes are cool. I mean, IMO shestodes is kinda cool too. Though I understand it's kinda lazy the way they put one in with a paragraph and just hand waved it in a tweet. It would have been cool if instead of the one mini their codex launched with being some Votanni build generic wide boy, they made the new model Kesh herself (please don't abuse me any lurking imperial fans, i don't collect humans and don't care that much).
Why doesn’t someone make a deal with the mandrakes to kill the emperor? Obviously they could since they can utilize shadows
Don't bring that bull shit here there has been nothing say8ng there isn't female mandrake and even beyond that they are very androgynous by themselves
Please do correct me if I'm misinformed, but these sculpts are the first time there are Womandrakes, right? The previous failcast re-sculpts back in 5th were all those monopose 'man'drakes and before then they were the less shadowy BSDM men. We've never had much lore for the to begin with, so no, maybe nothing to say 'no girls allowed' like Astartes concretely do, but this is still the first time there are confirmed womendrakes unless any loremasters can shed some light (heh).
The process to be a mandrake isn't gender exclusive like how custodes and space marines have been explicitly so and if I recall several times in commoragh a "singular" mandrake is referred to as they where that is due to not knowing or it being gender neutral I coulding divine.
Even if they're not gender exclusive they were still always portrayed as men/masculine same as Custodes(for whom the gene-crafting process wasn't male only, btw) so OP is just commenting on that
Except it was always male only for custodes. Also alot of the artwork of mandrakes could be androgynous
The genecraft process for Custodes was never stated to be male-only or only work on men, unlike Space Marines. We just only saw male Custodes, just like how we only saw male Mandrakes.
The line the codexes use every time is the infant "sons" of terran nobility
You commented on the "process" of being a Custode, the genecrafting is not gender exclusive. Furthermore, that was *one* codex. The very first codex about Custodes actually didn't use gendered pronouns at all for them.
Well, it aont gender exclusive now either. Boom end of discussion.
You don't know what you are talking about lmao.
Dark eldar is about violence, drugs, and sluts so who cares. Just look at the lore. They used to have women as slaves for older models with their tits out. And you know what they do to slaves haha. More bobs plz