Games Workshop has sparked shock and anger among Warhammer 40,000 fans after it killed off two main characters from Space Marine 2 via a brief lore update posted on its website.
Last week, Games Workshop announced that Titus, the main playable character from last year’s blockbuster hit video game Space Marine 2, had been promoted with a cool new trailer that set up the next narrative expansion for the Warhammer 40,000 setting, dubbed 500 Worlds.
Captain Demetrian Titus, Master of the Watch, is now once again Captain of the Ultramarines Second Company, a position he had already held before he was taken into custody on suspicion of heresy by the Inquisition after the events of the first Space Marine game.
In the context of Titus’ promotion, fans had expressed concern over the fate of Sevastus Acheran, the former captain of the Second Company and Master of the Watch who dishes out missions (and can never spare enough men) in Space Marine 2. Now we know what actually happened.
In a lore update post on Warhammer Community, Games Workshop revealed what Acheran got up to following the events of Space Marine 2. And yes, as fans feared, he’s dead.
Confirmation comes from a four paragraph lore explanation in the article itself, which reveals Acheran went out in a blaze of glory fighting a Genestealer Cult on the hive world of Trygg. That’s that. Acheran is dead. But it gets worse.
It turns out Lieutenant Chairon, one of Titus’ squadmates from Space Marine 2 and who was conspicuous by his absence from Games Workshop’s Titus reveal, was by Acheran’s side and also died at the hands of the Genestealer Cult. Chairon doesn’t even get more than a shout out, despite being the more prominent character in Space Marine 2.
Here’s how it went down:
Every last Space Marine that landed on Trygg was slowly worn down in a series of increasingly desperate battles. When Imperial reinforcements arrived to purge the last of the cult, they discovered that Acheran, Chairon, and the rest of their brothers had sold their lives to cull untold numbers of xenos hybrids.
It’s fair to say Warhammer 40,000 fans are a tad upset not just by the news of the characters’ deaths, but how Games Workshop revealed the news. Many are saying Acheran and Chairon deserved better than to be killed off-screen, and should instead have got their moment in either Space Marine 2 DLC or the confirmed Space Marine 3. At the very least, the characters could have been dealt with in a short story or, better still, a Warhammer 40,000 novel. But no. All they get is a few pars in a Warhammer Community article most fans won’t even read.
F’s in the chat for the GOAT Chairon (and Acheran too I guess) pic.twitter.com/wY0C1ags0L
— Master of Machines 🚧 (@MachDominus) November 11, 2025
“They had so much options,” said redditor Fit_Fisherman_9840 on the Space Marine subreddit, which is currently up in arms. “Make Chairon the new LT, or since his hate for the traitor make him the company Judiciar. And Acheran? Make it a dreadnought for f*** sake.”
“What a bummer about Acheran and Chairon,” said Thinsul over on the Warhammer 40,000 subreddit. “Killing them both off screen, especially Chairon as a Primaris that was born during the Heresy, is really low. It should have happened in a DLC or maybe a animation.”
“He died as he lived, unable to spare any more men,” Beaker_person said of Acheran’s demise on the 40kLore subreddit. “Is there anything more grimdark than to die offscreen?” joked ChaoticMat.
And what does this all mean for the other Ultramarines in Space Marine 2? Are they dead, too? In particular, fans are wondering about Chaplain Leandros, who was not mentioned as being among the dead alongside Acheran and Chairon. Perhaps he’s still out there somewhere, casting an inquisitive eye on Titus as he tries desperately to reclaim Ultramar.
All of this probably feeds into Space Marine 3 in some way, assuming the sequel picks up after the events of 500 Worlds or takes place during them. We know next to nothing about the game, but we can probably count poor Acheran and Chairon out.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
