Ultramar Has Fallen

It’s over. It’s so over.

*SPOILER ALERT*

So, after more than a full decade of waiting, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 has finally been released. The saga of Lieutenant Titus, leader of the Ultramarines 2nd Company, has had a new chapter added. The original Space Marine game featuring then-Captain Titus was a game very dear to me. I played through that game multiple times simply because of how aesthetic I found it. Rest assured, however, that this new iteration of the story did not see Games Workshop receive the dozens of dollaridoos from my wallet, but I still have had the pleasure of watching multiple playthroughs of SM2. Notably, Sargon of Akkad’s playthrough was greatly entertaining to watch.

What I want to focus on is the storyline, symbolism, and character development of Titus and his battle-brothers during this wonderfully aesthetic example of vidya. As Sargon noted, every frame in the game was a possible screenshot. It really is that cool-looking. But beneath the familiar Warhammer Grimdark scenery, is all well? Is all right with the Imperium of Man? No, I got the distinct impression that something was off.

From the get-go, I was flabbergasted that a black Ultramarine was prominently featured. In universe, the only Chapter which has black skin are the Salamanders’ founding Chapter and Legion. This of course, was retconned by Games Workshop in the mid-2010s, as the original reason for the skin tone had been the volcanic environment of Nocturne, the Salamanders’ home world. The retcon was performed largely due to the social, political, and economic pressures which had been imposed upon companies at the time through mechanisms such as ESG. DEI, anyone?

In any case, there was no real lore reason or justification for why a Space Marine with sub-Saharan African skin tone and facial features should even exist. Of course, with the attempted insertion of female Space Marines into the official Warhammer canon, we should have known that something like this would eventually happen. But the real question is: Why? And, more importantly, why now?

“Brother, I am Black.” – Binary Surfer, 2024