Genestealer Cults Part 1 - The Lore (Warhammer 40,000 Codex Review, 8th Edition)

The Genestealer Cults remain one of the most interesting armies to have emerged from Games Workshop in recent years. Despite having hidden in the background lore for decades - and cropped up in no shortage of novels - there was a long wait between the Second and Seventh Editions where they were given little to no support. Their return had them structured as a guerilla army, focusing on hidden ambushes, hit and fade attacks and the like, but to a much more unconventional degree. Unlike the various forms of Eldar or White Scars, they were less the sort who used this in an official military capacity and more of an ad-hoc fighting force.

However, the prior codex was not without some definite problems in the storytelling department. As outlined in that review, the book suffered from dividing its themes between two very different elements and a few odd shortcomings in terms of just how the cults could work. Well, we're back again, and this time the lore has been substantially expanded upon. So, let's see if more pages have been enough to fix things then.


The Good

The whole appeal of the Genestealer Cults could take up a full article, but much of it comes down to how they operate. They can crop up almost anywhere, go undetected for months if not years, and serve to undermine the planet while also calling out for the full Tyranid Hive Fleet to pop up and cause problems. It's a combination of the best elements from Aliens, the Cthulhu Mythos, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but it's distinct enough to stand out from each of them. The main problem last time lay largely in how it treated the cults themselves. Most of them were religious - something you may or may not be willing to forgive - but many lacked depth or detail as well. The core focus was often on miners being afflicted, and the few major cults seemed to just be there as flavour text without full detailing.

What has fixed the problem of their lack of real substance this time lies in execution and presentation. While there are a few more pages given to the lore, a major benefit to the codex lies in how it used those pages far more effectively. The artwork has some big splash page moments, but it no longer seems to exist purely to pad out areas intended for army lore. Equally, those big cults? They now have a few pages to each of them, and they help to offer a basis for army development. While I was personally not a big fan of the concept of huge cults at first, it does make some sense overall. There's no disadvantage to the 'Nids when it comes to creating larger and much more powerful organisations within the Imperium, and if they do want something smaller, they can easily create just another cult at the end of the day.

To cite a few of these examples, you have an example of a more typical cult in the form of the brilliantly named Cult of the Four-Armed Emperor, which targets workers of industrial mines and refineries. You have the oddly named Hivecult, which will always attempt to infect those with military power, especially the likes of the Imperial Guard, and is much more regimented and organised in conventional terms. You have the Bladed Cog, which typically takes interest in worlds belonging to the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Rusted Claw which operates in underhives and wastelands if possible, both of which try to undermine their worlds from the most inhospitable of places. The Pauper Princes are extreme zealts, which have blended the dogma of self-sacrifice with the Tyranid need to use their number as fodder in the name of victory, and the Twisted Helix, which attempts to utilise the Imperium's medicae against it.

What makes each so engaging is that they emphasise a level of legacy and history to each one, along with showing just how broad a number of worlds that each can infect. For example, the Cult of the Four-Armed Emperor has ties to the Deathwatch board game, and its story is delivered less like a detailed breakdown of their history than it is a horror story. By comparison, the history of the Rusted Claw offers a more direct breakdown of the cult's history, favoured environments and how they adapt to face threats. This kind of varied form of storytelling is something that Games Workshop has experimented with in the past, but it helps to offer some much-needed diversity to the book's storytelling. Plus, despite this, no single army ever comes across as being weaker or somehow less appealing than the others. It's an interesting approach, as it better reflects the thematic elements and more unique qualities of each army, along with showing just how the Genestealer Cults can infect varied groups.

However, even once you get past the big name ones, there are a group of smaller factions present to offer some more insight into other operations. These range from the Sons of Jorgamundr - who have adapted to infecting and controlling a massive network of orbital facilities - to the Behemoid Undercult. Just wait until you see the background on these guys:

"Upon the fringes of Ultramar operate the Behemoid Undercult. This hidden organisation is of such cunning it has infested several worlds, despite continued attacks from the Tyrannic War Veterans trained by Ortan Cassius. There are rumours the cult's founders worshipped a battle-scarred Tyranid monstrosity trapped in ice, and that they still revere that great beat alongside their own Patriarch as a saint of a new order. That creature, known as Old One Eye in the spacefarer tales that surround it, is of such totemic importance to the Undercult that they ritually scar and tattoo themselves, or even cut out their own right eyes in homage to the creature, seeing it as a prophet of the xenos god behemoth."

While it's far from subtle by any stretch of the imagination, it offers subtle Lovecraftian cult undertones with its subject of slumbering giants, calls back to overlooked elements of the lore, and has a distinct identity without delving into cliches. It shows that there is a culture behind each group and, while they are not wholly fleshed out like some others, they have definite variety and potential to offer a more diverse group of personality elements than one would expect. Furthermore, as the main ones are fully fleshed out across two pages, it gives players something to directly latch onto. I have personally long argued that the Space Marines remain a dominant force due to the easily identifiable major chapters, characters and lore behind them. It's the same reason that you can likely name a few Eldar Craftworlds and major Imperial Guard recruitment worlds, but would struggle with the T'au Empire or Dark Eldar. If presented in the right way, this could be a major start to helping the Genestealer Cults stand out on their own.

Another very welcome addition to the lore is the removal of the divide which previously plagued the codex, with the cults' nature and cultures being a core focus. A prior issue was how the lore once tried to have its cake an eat it - Going into detail about the cults but ultimately presenting them as little more than a tool for the 'Nids. In this case, while that remains true, the focus is much more on the cults themselves rather than their subservience to others. They're not an extension to another army, but a force unto themselves, who happen to be working for the same Warp shadowy overlord. An easy comparison would be how the Adeptus Astartes and Astra Militarum fight for the Emperor, but despite one being notably stronger and closer to him, neither is seen as an extension of the other.

However, the codex takes multiple steps further in strengthening their identity through a few additional means. The most obvious among these is the addition of demi-characters, giving the cults much needed "face" to bolster their units like the Kellermorph, but also a much-improved series of details surrounding their units. The quiet role of the Locuses makes them seem like a very engaging threat, and offers a lot of possibilities in terms of roles in future novels. Equally, I would genuinely read a full novel about the Sanctuses performing an assassination mission, now that they serve as a direct wetworks operative to the cult. While the past lore was engaging to a point, the direction taken with the new units is much more atmospheric. Either it comes across as offering a ground-level perspective on their activities, or has enough thematic quality on its side to make me want to see more of them, rather than just reading a list of accomplishments.

Finally, and most prominently, is how the book presents the Genestealer Cults as a whole. As much detail and thought is put into how the cults come about, the worlds they infest, and how they are depicted in waging war as any Space Marine chapter. While the information is largely the same as before, the greater space to work with and a better implementation of visual guides makes it much more engaging. By comparison, it offers much more in the way of an easy read to skim through, but highly detailed and well thought out lore for those who wish to delve a bit deeper into the book. It's sadly one of these things where you need to see it for yourself, but touches like going into a breakdown of how the cults can (and will) infect specific classes of worlds is a detail which would have been skipped in another Edition.

Unfortunately, every book has its negatives, and Codex: Genestealer Cults is no exception.


The Bad

One of the more surprising problems with the codex stems from its use of quotes. Now, quotes are a great bonus to have an excellent tool. When delivered correctly they offer a small soundbite to look into and recall directly in relation to a unit or army as a whole. Here though, they are extremely hit and miss. There are certainly good ones to be sure - as one associated with the Locuses proved very quickly in detailing a very brief duel - but others come across as either overly generic or ill-fitting to the setting. In fact, more than a few seem as if they would be more at home in Shadowrun than Warhammer 40,000, with the medical and crime focused quotes not quite gelling with the demi-feudal state of the Imperium. Even without this, they simply aren't memorable, as they lack the horror or impressiveness to really stick in the mind.

Another issue with the codex is the lengths it goes to when allowing certain infestations to take place. The genestealers are hyper-evolved and highly effective killing machines, and no one would doubt that a dedicated force could get a foothold on any planet. You could stand a chance of wiping them out with a determined strike or investigation, but it would be difficult. With that being said, there is a need to repeatedly downplay the Imperium's technological understanding to give them more of an edge. This is evident in the details of how the Bladed Cog overthrew their overseers, but also with the Twisted Helix. In the latter case, it's infuriating as it repeatedly cites the Imperium as having extremely limited medical understanding, or capabilities overall. Certain sections of it to be sure, but all of it? These are the same guys who frequently genetically enhance certain troops, upgrade their nobles and have gone so far as to clone both organs and whole people. Yet, in spite of that, the codex seems to imply pre-vaccination medicae facilities within the Imperium, or at least a total lack of understanding of how anything works.

The codex also has the problem in how it doesn't quite know what to do with certain large scale cults, or it will try to depict them in a very different light. While variation is to be encouraged, segments seem to imply them as empire builders and conquerors over fifth columnists working for the Hive Fleets. Once again, the big example lies in the lore behind the Bladed Cog, which implies that they turned their hive world into a full hub for a massive insurrection against the Imperium. You could argue that this is part of a much larger operation to claim multiple worlds for their progenitor fleet, but the cults typically only move out into the open once the endgame is in play and the hive fleets are getting close. If not that, then when they can initiate psychic calls to draw them in and finish their jobs. This lack of direction seems contradictory to their core details, and either a minor retcon or clarification is definitely needed in order to further allow for this sort of thing.

The timeline is also a very mixed bag on the whole, as it helps to clarify certain points, but frequently fails to further elaborate upon events. The timeline does have key moments where it will delve deep into smaller events and uses it as an opportunity to examine individual moments not covered by the big factions, but these aren't so common as you would expect. It's not a complete waste by any stretch of the imagination, and it still contributes to the book, but it certainly could have been far better written to build upon what is presented in other sections.

Finally, and most pressingly, is an old issue which will likely never be resolved: The Genestealer Cults are human and nothing more. I have cited previously that various species are affected by genestealer infestations, with the likes of the T'au empire being one massive example. However, everything we have here relates purely to them and the Imperium, save for one or two passing mentions. It downplays anything outside of humanity's domain and doesn't fully explore the implications of their involvement with other alien species. This creates a tunnel vision effect which once again reduces the dynamic to "X vs. the Imperium" which only makes the galaxy seem smaller.


The Art

Pretty damn great across the board in all honesty. While it's certainly not a style I would personally favour, the depiction of events is excellent here, as it ranges from stylistic "portrait" images of leaders which emphasises religious undertones, to sabotage operations. You are given a great sense of just how deeply entrenched the army can be, and it manages to do more than just show a few massive battle scenes to depict them in action.

Furthermore, many of the best moments by the artists work to examine the army's culture over its action elements. The greatest of these was the depiction of the hive mind as a singular god via a statue, which despite its basic featureless design and simplicity conveyed more engagement than some major two-page spreads in other books. Add in the fact that the styles of the artists involved did clash with one another, and it's a solid addition to the codex.


The Verdict

Overall, the codex was pretty damn good across the board. There was a definite effort to build upon what existed before, and to cover the shortcomings of the previous book. It does far more to give you reason to be engaged by the Genestealer Cults as an army, and to view them as more than just a hindrance before the big bad gribbly bugs show up. Overall, it's a very good addition to the franchise and a sign of massive improvement on Games Workshop's part.