Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 is finally coming with four armies: Blood Ravens, Orks, Necrons, and Adeptus Mechanicus. However, some fans have noticed the eyebrow-raising absence of protagonist Gabriel Angelos. 

A mainstay of the Dawn of War series, Gabriel Angelos was last seen pulling off double backflips in the often-maligned third entry in the series. But where is he now? 

In an interview with IGN, Dawn of War 4 creative director Jan Theysen explained that the team simply didn’t want to put the character in the game due to his incredibly overpowered abilities.

“That was actually one of the decisions we made relatively early. We don’t want Gabriel Angelos in the game,” Theysen told the outlet. 

In Dawn of War 3, Angelos wielded the God-Splitter hammer, and was the Chapter Master of the Blood Ravens. While the developers haven’t ruled out his appearance in a post-launch expansion of some kind, he will not be a part of the main game as they would have to somehow nerf the character (which probably wouldn’t go down well). 

“For us, he felt a little bit overpowered,” Theysen continued. “It’s a little bit weird to have either this slightly overpowered character from the beginning of the game, which is a little bit off, or you have to do, ‘Oh, well, he lost his memory and he lost all his power,’ which is also a weird trope.”

Instead, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 focuses on “normal heroes” such as Commander Cyrus and Psyker Chief Librarian Jonah Orion as they’re “power level-wise, more similar to normal units.”

The complete absence of Gabriel Angelos is very surprising simply due to the fact that the RTS games feel like his story. However, with the fourth game in the series starting off a new era with a new developer, it may be the right move.