Among the latest releases for Warcrow, Corvus Belli's fantasy skirmish miniature wargame, Samara Dìthean may be the most significant. Within his faction, the Scions of Yaldabaoth, he's remarkable as a Divergent, one gifted with the skill to explore each of the magical Disciplines that other Scions must dedicate themselves fully to. As a miniature, he's the most transparent depiction of a transmasculine character I've ever seen - and he and his faction point to a more compassionate approach to fantastical gender transition than the well-established norm. I spoke to lore master Laura "Hoopoe" Royo to learn more.
The Scions of Yaldabaoth are the latest Warcrow faction to receive a major release, though they've been part of the lore since before the miniature wargame was even released. They're the losers of a long-ago Elven civil war, shunned for their willingness to embrace magic to its fullest. While they're as capable of pursuing their own goals at others' expense as any other faction, they're not intrinsically evil. And while magic is a potentially dangerous power source, it's not inherently corrupting - the Scions' radically altered bodies aren't chaotic mutations, but rather a mixture of pragmatic adaptation and self-expression.
In the case of Samara Dìthean, that includes gender transition. As Hoopoe explains, "In the case of Samara, they just were not comfortable with their given body", which was femme presenting - but having joined the Scions, he had the option to transition. Hoopoe summarizes the decision for the character: "The same as I can get a very sick pair of wings on my back, because I look fantastic, and the same as I can replace my eyes with horns or put an extra pair of limbs by my armpits, I can just remove my tits".
The Scions as a whole are gender-ambivalent, says Hoopoe: "It's one of these things that is not that important to them, I don't really think gender is a discussion". The society as a whole is organised around the philosophy and agenda of the Architect of Flesh, an ancient creator-being, and "The architect doesn't care" how its followers relate to their bodies.
Hoopoe says that in Warcrow's lore, gender and sexuality can be "Part of somebody's identity, but it's not their personality or their plot". But she adds that in Spain, where Corvus Belli is based "There's a pretty big chunk of the population that's still not familiar with the concept [of trans men]", and Samara's scars have been mistaken for battle wounds - so this representation is significant, insofar as it is representing a reality that many people are not familiar with.
The Scions faction as a whole is extremely queer coded. They are outsiders who are ostracized by mainstream society and organize themselves into found Families - see our feature on their dynamics here for more info - and while that kind of experience isn't exclusive to queer people, it is very common.
The head of each Family is formally named as a parent, Father or Mother (and presumably another title if they identify with neither) who look after their children. We can see parallels in queer communities, whether that's senior drag queen mentors being called 'Mother', or people who are still exploring or have just recognised their identity being referred to as 'baby gays' or 'baby lesbians'.
Lastly - and I don't know how to put this without being indelicate - the models are super gay. Obviously there are as many gay art styles as there are ages and cultures of humanity, and the Scions will only speak to some tastes - but I do think that there will be a lot of LGBTQ+ gamers who look at the Scions and think "Wow, these are as cool as the Tyranids!" or "Maybe I'll start collecting these instead of adding more to my Sisters of Battle". Samara looks like a character that a young trans man would doodle in the front of his school workbook, and I am just waiting for the moment that a tall trans girl reposts a picture of the Yaldabaoth officer, below right, with the caption "She's literally me".
Which isn't to say that the faction is in any sense directed against heterosexual tastes - it's well within the bounds of regular fantasy, and only the frailest of snowflakes are scared away from something they think is cool just because LGBTQ+ people might like it too. Nor do I suspect that all this queer coding is particularly intentional. Rather, I think the Scions have been designed from a set of fantasy assumptions that feed naturally into themes and ideas relevant to queer life, and that fact has been recognized and addressed gracefully as it has arisen.
Representations of gender in tabletop wargaming fiction are a complex and fascinating issue. We've written before about how it can be and has been weaponized by bad actors in the Warhammer 40k fandom, and I've got a lot of capital "T" Thoughts about Slaanesh I want to share in another opinion article very soon. For now though, I'm just excited to see Yaldabaoth offering new possibilities, fantasies of radical body alteration and gender affirmation that wargaming lore hasn't yet explored. Samara Dìthean is an icon, and hopefully a harbinger of more good things to come.
If you're an LGBTQ+ gamer, you'll always find a warm welcome in the Wargamer Discord community.