Warhammer 40K's greatest general returns from the dead
My boy is back from the war, and he's older and angrier than ever
Everyone knows about the Space Marines in Warhammer 40K, and fans can rattle off facts about the transhuman Primarchs and the ten thousand Custodes. But if you're a fan of the history of these fictional battles, a reader of the tie-in novels, or just an Imperial Guard player, then you know that one of the most legendary names in all of Warhammer is Commissar Sebastian Yarrick.
Yarrick is a mere mortal, yet one that has earned the respect and admiration of the entire Imperium. He is best known for his exploits on the world of Armageddon, where he has fought a burgeoning onslaught of Orks. He doesn't wear power armor; instead, he has one bionic eye, one power klaw he stole off an Ork's corpse, and of course the iconic Commissar cap. Most of us thought Yarrick was dead thanks to a bit of text in the 9th edition of the Astra Militarum Codex. (That's the fancy name for the Imperial Guard.)
But this death happened off screen, and while fans enjoyed speculating the details of his fate, we never actually saw a body. As we all know, if you don't see a character perish in the material, and their body is recovered afterwards, there's a non-zero chance that they survived the incident – and that's not even counting all the ridiculous technology and magic at hand in 40K that allows even the most lost of causes to come back from the brink. So, perhaps it's not a surprise that Games Workshop released a new animation showing the war for Armageddon grinding on. As one commander breaks under the pressure and calls the order to retreat, another man steps up: Yarrick's back, baby!!
Yarrick is older than ever, and it looks like he's being quite literally held together with transhumanism treatments and technological tape. If you're interested in reading more about the legend of this guy, I'd recommend the book Gunheads, where an armored tank company undergoes a doomed mission to recover Yarrick's tank, the Fortress of Arrogance. Just Yarrick's tank – not even the man himself, his tank! – is a relic able to inspire armies and turn the tide of wars. Now that he's back on the front lines of Armageddon, we'll just have to see what happens next. My money is on a legendary scrap between the Guard and the Orks, probably with a healthy dose of heroic last stands.