Who are Space Marine 2’s new Chaos antagonists, the Thousand Sons?

When Space Marine 2 was first announced, the debut trailer led players to believe that the greatest enemy to fight would be the hungry hordes of Tyranids swarming the Imperium. They still pose a major threat, but the latest gameplay trailer revealed the game’s other antagonist: the Thousand Sons, servants of the God of Change. But who exactly are these villains, and why do they pose such a threat to Titus and the Imperium of Man?

Over 10,000 years ago, before the current grim setting of Warhammer 40,000, the Emperor of Man created twenty Space Marine legions. Things immediately started to go off the rails; two legions were purged from history, their fate unknown. A civil war called the Horus Heresy split the remaining 18 legions 50/50, with half siding with humanity and the Emperor. The other half, including the Thousand Sons, ultimately sided with the extra-dimensional and completely evil Chaos Gods.

The Thousand Sons are perhaps the most tragic traitor legion, and some fans have argued that their leader, Magnus, has done nothing wrong. (He definitely did a lot of things wrong, but that’s a whole other article.) Each legion, loyalist or traitor, has its own specialization; the Imperial Fists love to fortify themselves, the Raven Guard is the best at stealth, and members of the Death Guard are so strong they are nearly invulnerable. Magnus and the Thousand Sons are pyskers of the highest order; These guys are not only Space Marines, they also have a lot of Space Wizards in their ranks.

In the days surrounding the Horus Heresy, Magnus the Red – who enjoyed great freedom and power as one of the Emperor’s sons – spent a lot of time messing around in the Warp. What he didn’t know, because his father never told him, is that the Warp is the domain of the Chaos Gods. One of these evil entities, Tzeentch, contacted Magnus and started some Skype calls in space.

Tzeentch offered to solve a small problem facing the Thousand Sons: a rampant mutation called the Flesh Change. Magnus traded his eye for a solution to the flesh change. This was the beginning of a series of bargains that ultimately inadvertently turned Magnus against his father and loyalist brothers, ruining his father’s master plan for the future of humanity.

What made matters worse was that the flesh change returned. Ahriman, Magnus’s favorite son, decided to start a small paternal rebellion of his own. He cast a complicated spell called a rubric in an attempt to cure the flesh change. It friendly by worked; Ahriman stopped the flesh-change because the spell turned every non-psyker Thousand Son into a storm of dust trapped in their armor. Oopsie scribble!

Image: Game workshop

The Thousand Sons have long been an opponent of the Imperium, and Magnus even appeared at the beginning of the current era of Indomitus to try to prevent the Ultramarines primarch Roboute Guilliman from reaching Terra. The Thousand Sons enter Space Marine 2 is a bit of a grudge match. As Titus makes his way through the Marines and Tzeentchian Wizards section, I think: Mine father could hit your dad.

Tzeentch is a more difficult boss to portray in video games than the other Chaos Gods. Change, manipulation, and fate are abstract concepts compared to the bloodshed of Khorne or the plagues of Nurgle. The Thousand Sons is a good way to put a face – well, or a helmet full of dust – on Tzeentch and his infinite number of plans. I hope we see some of the stranger elements of this Chaos God, like two-headed demons that can tell the past and future, but not the present.

Space Marine 2 will be released this winter on PlayStation 5, Windows PC and Xbox Series it has no concrete release date.