Imperial Guard
For every hero commemorated, a thousand martyrs die, unmourned and unremembered.
The Red Shirt Army. The Space Marines hog all the glory, but since there is less than one Space Marine for every world in the Imperium, it is the untold billions of the Imperial Guard that do 99% of the fighting. Individually, a Guardsman is your average Joe, going up against Super Soldiers and Eldritch Abominations. He's got a set of basic flak armor that can withstand outdated small arms fire, a lasgun that while capable of blowing off limbs is among the weakest weapons in the setting, training full of propaganda and blatant lies, commanders willing to sacrifice millions of men and machines in decade-long campaigns, and commissarsready to summarily execute cowards, deserters
Thematically, the Guard is a melting pot of inspiration from every army in history, and then some. The Catachans are regiments of jungle-fighting Rambos, Valhallans are grim but determined ice worlders reminiscent of Soviet infantry hordes, Tallarns are pious and wily desert raiders, Cadians are taught to field-strip a lasgun before they learn how to walk, the Praetorians wear pith helmets and red coats, the Mordians are Prussian-esque soldiers always in dress uniforms, the Death Korps of Krieg are everything scary and callous about the First World War ramped up to eleven, the Steel Legions of Armageddon look like WW 2German paratroopers and fight like panzer grenadiers, the Tanith First-And-Only are scouts and woodsmen beyond compare, and the Elysians are heavily-armed and armoured pastiches of every elite airborne regiment ever with Nerves Of Steel and no tank or artillery support. Traditionally the Imperial Guard were depicted as being used in human wave attacks or trench warfare right out of World War One, but a recent series of novels has seen the Guard re-tooled into a sophisticated and highly-trained war machine combining infantry, armor, and air support into a fighting force the equal of any modern army. Considering what they're up against, it isn't always enough.
Few armies can field as many soldiers as the Imperial Guard, which is fortunate, as they are comparatively lightly armored, and have morale that's highly contingent on there being a commanding officer (or commissar) nearby. On the other hand, few armies can bring as many weapons to bear in a single Shooting phase as the Imperial Guard, so while a single lasgun is unlikely to get results, fifty or sixty firing in salvos will (unoffically referred to as 'the laser light show'). The Guard is also famous for their tanks, which are unsophisticated and unsubtle metal monsters capable of blasting through problems with heavy ordnance. But the key to the Imperial Guard's popularity may be that they're basically normal people forced into unimaginably bad situations, but who can prevail with luck, faith in the God-Emperor, and overwhelming firepower.
There's also an Imperial Navy that fights battles in space and transports Guard troops, which follows similar protocol to the Guard and has a like chain of command but separate leadership.
Notable Imperial Guard tropes include:
- Badass Abnormal: Cadian Kasrkin, selected from the most badass soldiers in one of the Guard's most badass armies and then given genetic and cybernetic augmentations in addition to much heavier armour and bigger guns. They have been known to calmly attack hulking daemonic killing machines with knives when no other options present themselves.
- Badass Grandpa — Legendary Commissar Yarrick, who led the Imperium to victory during the Second War for Armageddon, retired, then came back again to save the day during the Third War for Armageddon. He's so incredibly badass, after he got his arm lopped off by an Ork, he killed the thing and took its power klaw for a replacement and trophy. He has a bionic eye that shoots lasers. And now he's tagged along with a Black Templar crusade to hunt down Warlord Ghazghkull once and for all.
- Consider: one of the most fanatical Space Marine chapters took a sole unaugmented human with them on a crusade because he has the most chance of actually accomplishing their objective.
- Consider also that most Orks will actively avoid facing Yarrick in battle and it's heavily implied that the only reason he replaced his lost eye with a bionic one was because he wanted to feed into the already existing rumors among them that he could kill you just by looking at you.
- Finally, consider this: Under all that, Yarrick is still just a normal, unmodified (but extremely badass) human closing in on his 70s.
- "Normal" is stretching it a bit. Source material rather heavily implies that the fact that Orks regard him as some sort of unkillable badass has turned him into an unkillable badass. Games Workshop paint jobs of his model always has his skin with a greenish tinge. Orks actually think so highly of him that if his model is killed against an Ork army, it stands a good chance of getting back up again.
- Badass Normal Army - The Guard on a good day. When faced with undying metal nightmares, daemon-possessed super soldiers, and aliens advanced enough to snuff out stars, they occasionally win.
- Badass Longcoat — Commissars. Also have a Nice Hat, specifically the much sought-after Commissar Cap.
- Bad Boss — A great deal of officers, commanders and generals are this. Commissars are generally always this, their job description being to execute You Have Failed Me when neccessary.
- Base On Wheels — The Leviathan mobile command center, as well as the Capitol Imperialis, which can house tank companies.
- Beam Spam — The only way to effectively use lasguns is in bulk.
- Or "hotshot" power packs that reduce the service life of a lasgun's barrel but significantly increase its range and damage. Some Kasrkin units are beginning to favour these over their customary Hellguns.
- Big Book Of War — The Tactica Imperium
is a collection of countless commanders' combined battlefield experiences, containing advice on topics from barricade construction to force organization. Imperial generals may find it useful, though they have to keep in mind that it occasionally contradicts itself, should not be adhered to too strictly, and some passages are best read as metaphors.
- Bifurcated Weapon — The standard lasgun is usually equipped with a bayonet... That's right, forty thousand years into the future and mankind has to resort to bayonet charges... though the numbers the Imperial Guard can muster into bayonet charges would cause some World War I generals to orgasm.
- BFG — Heavy Weapons Platoons, the Basilisk mobile artillery's Earthshaker cannon, and then we move into super-heavy battle tank territory...
- Bullet Proof Vest — 'Flak Armour' is standard-issue for Imperial Guard infantry... but those are way outdated for the vast majority of races in Warhammer40000.
- Butt Monkey: Serious example which even extended to the players before the new codex.
- Cannon Fodder — A popular image for the Imperial Guardsmen troops, though this varies between regiments and commanders. However, there are conscript squads in the game, of which their use is pretty much undeniably this.
- Again, Chainswords - a common melee weapon amongst the Imperial Guard aside from standard issue combat knives.
- Character Exaggeration — The people in charge for the Imperial Guard are frequently portrayed in fan works are being either so sociopathic or imcompetent that it would be wonder the Imperium didn't fall long ago. There certainly are cases, the Imperium being very vast, and it's likely done to emphasize how Warhammer40000 is Grim Dark (or is Played For Laughs as Black Humor in the Refuge In Audacity of it.). Which it is.
- Church Militant — Considered to be an aspiration for the Imperial Guard, though the success and extremity of this heavily varies between regiments.
- Combat Medic — Anyone who has medical abilities in the Imperial Guard is otherwise trained and armed similar to standard infantry.
- Commissar Cap — The Trope Namer, obviously. The hats worn by the commissars are so flashy that you will immidiately see that he is a man of fear and respect.
- Designated Hero — For every planetary defense action, the Guard are also used on one hundred or more xenocidal crusades or repressive campaigns to keep worlds from seceding.
- Usually as the result of the aforementioned planetary defence actions going pear-shaped.
- Elite Mooks — Imperial Stormtroopers (not ''those'' guys) are basically special ops teams outfitted with improved versions of a Guardsman's wargear (earning them monikers such as "Toy Soldiers" and "Glory Boys" from the resentful rank-and-file). In other words, they are Space Marines (the non-Super Soldier variant) in all but name.
- Cadia's equivalents, the Kasrkin, are trained and hardened to such a degree that they could be considered the Elite Mooks OF the Elite Mooks. Consider that instead of being resented by other guardsmen, they are looked up at.
- Fake Ultimate Hero — Commissar Ciaphas Cain (HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!). Contrast with Commissar Ibram Gaunt, an actual hero doomed to obscurity.
- Arguably a subverted trope by this point. Cain's protestations of non-heroism are more and more at odds with his actions in every book.
- Fan Nickname — Shooting phase for the guard is unofficially called 'the laser light show', it involves several hundred guardsmen and a large bucket of dice (No, this is not an exaggeration), the only things that can survive this level of onslaught are tanks.
- Similarly, lasguns are called flashlights or laser sights, while flak armour is either cardboard or T-shirts.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture — Not as obvious as the Space Marines, but Cadia is based on modern soldiers from various countries, whereas we have the Catachans who are based on both sides in the Vietnam conflict, while the Valhallans and Vostroyans are based on the Red Army and the Imperial Russian Army, respectively. There's also the Attilan Rough Riders, based on Mongols, Steel Legion and Death Korps of Krieg, both based on the World War II era german army to various degrees, the elite Elysian Drop Troopers, who take notes from just about every paratrooper and air-cav force in military history, and a few others that would take up too much space to describe. Many of these armies are at least somewhat nice by comparison to their real life counterparts, however.
- There are elite troops called Grenadiers in the game - the only reason they are called that is pretty much because of the 'elite assault soldier' connotation of the word, just like in many militaries applying the term due to its past of, well, elite assault soldiers.
- Cadia is guessed to be a reference to Canada's military (likely in World War I), though the connection isn't entirely straightforward - standard battle tactics of Cadia are frontal assaults where Canadian forces in World War I were famous shock troops (which involved specialized infiltration missions to break up the cohesiveness of enemy defences followed by a larger offensive). Further confusing, Cadia fields many Kasrkin and Grenadier troops, the former being very famous assault troops, the latter being more better trained and armoured guardsmen who are otherwise fielded as regular guardsmen - which certainly seems to fit the bill there.
- These design elements make the Guard popular with fans of realistic tactical wargames, who often design and paint their armies to look even more like certain historical forces.
- General Failure — There's no shortage of Guard generals who got their position entirely through family connections and interdepartmental politicking, and who couldn't command their way out of a wet paper bag. Many follow the We Have Reserves school of Imperial tactics, reasoning that even the most egregious tactical errors can be overcome by throwing enough men at the problem. The most incompetent of them even manage to screw that up.
- Glory Seeker: Many COs.
- A Father To His Men: No shortage in these as well.
- Hobbits — The rarely-seen but still canon Ratling Snipers, a breed of abhuman known for their marksmanship, knack at finding cover, gluttony and petty theft.
- Don't forget making great cooks.
- Hollywood Tactics — Still common amongst the regiments, though Dan Abnett shows that not all commanders are that stupid.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy — Subverted. Though they have a reputation as unreliable shots, Guardsmen have average Ballistic Skill, and statistically half of their ranged attacks will hit. Actual Stormtroopers shoot as well as Space Marines and have a two out of three chance of hitting the mark.
- Join The Army They Said — Though not all of them had a choice in the matter.
- More Dakka — Taking a cue from the Orks, the newest Guard codex introduced the Leman Russ Punisher, armed with a gatling cannon that fires twenty shots a round, theoretically capable of turning entire Ork mobs into goo.
- One Gender Race — Though there are the odd all-female, or even rarer mixed-gender Imperial Guard regiments, there are approximately four Imperial Guardswoman models.
- Power Fist — it being an Imperium weapon, many models of the Imperial Guard may use them.
- Put On A Bus — Several regiments are no longer supported by GW, including the Praetorians, the Savlar Chem Dogs, and the Kanak Skull Takers. While they still exist in-universe and you can technically still use them if you can track down the models, they've just barely escaped going the way of the Squats.
- Red Shirt Army — The Imperial Guard on a bad day.
- Sergeant Rock — Probably a major factor to Guardsmen actually standing off against their enemies. Until the Sergeant Rock dies, of course. Of course again, there's more where that came from.
- Tank Goodness — A huge appeal of the Imperial Guard. Even the standard Leman Russ is a very good tank. Then there are the dozens of variants, and the even bigger super-heavy battle tanks such as the Baneblade, with their "Eleven barrels of hell!"...
- The Ogre — Ogryns are big, stupid abhumans sought after in Guard regiments as walking meat shields. They are armed with the Ripper Gun, a sturdy weapon specially-designed for their users to wield as a club.
- Throw The Dog A Bone: IG players after the new codex.
- Took A Level In Bad Ass: Post new codex, the guard have become gods of mechanized warfare.
- We Have Reserves — ...that number in the trillions.
- Whos Laughing Now: The reaction to the new codex.
- You Have Failed Me — An actual rule with Commissars: Units that fail a leadership test will have the Commissar execute their leader and make them retake it. Characters actually get a leadership bonus when one joins the unit due to the intimidation.
See also Gaunts Ghosts, Ciaphas Cain, Imperial Guard.
The Inquisition
When passing sentence, always err to the side of harshness. Remember: there is no such thing as innocence, only degrees of guilt.
State Sec with a side of Church Militant, Inquisitors are some of the most powerful individuals in the Imperium, working behinds the scenes to keep everything from going (further) to Hell. They can command civil authorities, the Imperial Guard, the Navy, agents of the Officio Assassinorum, even the Astartes (though they are wise enough to tread carefully in the last case, usuallyrequesting their help instead of just ordering them around); they have the power of Judge Jury And Executioner over individuals or whole worlds. They are fully competent in the Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique, using any method possible to root out the Imperium's enemies, though their readiness to use the "Nine Actions" varies greatly. Though presented as a unified if extremely intimidating front to the Imperium at large, in reality the Inquisition is a hotbed of backstabbing and intrigue, as patient detectives rub shoulders with frothing religious zealots, Puritans hunt Radicals foolish enough to try and turn the weapons of the enemy against them, and a variety of philosophical outlooks struggle amongst themselves for dominance.
Inquisitors fall mostly into three orders, each with a specific preferred enemy and a Chamber Militant best suited for fighting that enemy.
- The Ordo Malleus, or Daemonhunters, fight Chaos directly, and work with the Grey Knights, Chapter 666 of the Adeptus Astartes, the people even normal Space Marines consider Bad Ass in comparison, with holy armour and sanctifiedpsychic weapons.
- The Ordo Hereticus, or Witch Hunters, fight heresy against the Imperial faith, mutant scum, and unlicensed psykers. Originally established to police the Ecclesiarchy, they typically spearhead forces of Battle Sisters, warrior nuns armed and armoured almost as well as the Space Marines. This Adepta Sororitas was formed to get around a ban on the Church fielding "men under arms", and, though psykers are banned from their ranks, can tactically invoke minor miracles. They loooove flamethrowers.
- The Ordo Xenos, the Alien-Hunters, still haven't received a codex. They are more scholarly than the other orders, studying alien races for weaknesses, and undermining and destroying those that present a threat to the Imperium. This doesn't remove their secret-police role, as they often investigate and stop alien political and religious influence on the fringes of Imperial space. Their military backup is the Deathwatch, a force seconded from those of the Astartes chapters who displayed an affinity for fighting the aliens, specially trained and equipped accordingly. Now they're getting a spinoff game of their own!
Notable Inquisitorial tropes include:
- Amazon Brigade — The Sisters of Battle result from a loophole that bans the Ecclesiarchy from maintaining "men under arms." They are basically Space Marines without the genetic enhancement, but make up for it with pure zeal.
- Authority Equals Asskicking — "By the authority invested in me by the God-Emperor of Mankind..."
- Badass Longcoat - Favored by the Witch Hunters in particular.
- Because =I= Said So - That little symbol is one of the most powerful weapons in existence.
- There's a quote in the Daemonhunters codex about this. It goes something like this:
"In my hand I hold a signet, stamped with the symbol of our holy Order. It is a small and modest thing. Yet with this I can order the execution of in-numerable people and seal the fate of an entire world." - Bloody Murder — Eversor assassins are power sword-wielding killing machines pumped up on so many combat drugs they explode when killed, and have to be kept instasis when they aren't on assignment.
- Boxed Crook — A common background for Inquisitorial retinue members. Some intrepid Radicals employ boxed Daemons.
- Chainmail Bikini — Normal Sororitas infantry are a rare aversion, clad head to toe in Powered Armour. Sisters Repentia play it straight, but only because they're not allowed to have armor.
- Character Alignment — The Grey Knights and the Sisters of Battle tend towards Lawful Good (or at least, the closest you'll get in the Imperium.) With the rest of the Inquisition, it's anyone's guess.
- Church Militant — In a nutshell.
- Cold Blooded Torture: Occasionally used by the Inqusition, but much less often than their reputation would suggest. They find information extracted under such duress to be of questionable reliability. Typically, they find it easier just to have a psychic interogator simply forcefully extract the information from the subject's mind.
- Cold Sniper — Assassins of the Vindicare temple are expert marksmen and infiltrators, complete with special ammunition allowing them to one-shot a tank.
- Complete Monster — Individual examples crop up regularly.
- Drop The Hammer — Daemonhammers are consecrated warhammers that are especially potent against Warp-spawn. They are favored by agents of the Ordo Malleus, which translates to Order of the Hammer.
- Exact Words — The Ecclesiarchy is disallowed from maintaining any men under arms, as stated by Decree Passive, leading to the Amazon Brigade at the top of this section.
- Fate Worse Than Death — Some heretics or blasphemers may be ordered to undergo the rites of Arco-Flagellation as an extreme act of repentance. This involves lopping off the condemned's hands and replacing them with power flails or other nasty weapons, sticking the guy's back full of combat drug dispensers, and lots of mental conditioning. The result is a wasted, wiry cyborg who wears a hood displaying calming religious images, but with the right command word the visor retracts, the stimm-packs activate, and the former heretic goes berserk.
- Great Big Book Of Everything — The Inquisition has an extensive library of banned, heretical, and downright dangerous musty tomes.
- He Knows Too Much — Inquisitors are known for requisitioning Imperial Guard regiments, and sometimes ordering the grunts killed after being exposed to whatever it was they were called on to help deal with.
- Judge Jury And Executioner — The Inquisition's motto is "Innocence Proves Nothing." And few dare question if an Inquisitor decides someone is just guilty enough for a dangerous but high-paying retinue position, a Fate Worse Than Death, or a simple bolt round to the head.
- Kill It With Fire — "Burn the Heretic, Kill the Mutant, Purge the Unclean."
- Macross Missile Massacre — The Exorcist used by the Sisters of Battle is a combination tank, pipe organ, and multiple missile launcher. It fires as a Battle-Sister plays a keyboard on top of it.
- No Kill Like Overkill — The Inquisition will go to any extreme to ensure that threats to the Imperium are defeated, up to and including killing untold billions of innocents by subjecting the planet in question to Exterminatus.
- Our Souls Are Different — Culexus assassins are horrifying creatures that seem to lack a soul, thanks to the Pariah gene. Ordinary people find them quite disturbing, but the assassins are trained to prey on enemy psykers, who are especially sensitive to them. Their wargear fires what has been described as bolts of anti-soul.
- Right Hand Versus Left Hand — You've got your standard turf wars between the three Ordos, open violence between Radicals and Puritans, wrangling between the Thorians and the Amalthians and the Monodominants, and battles by proxy between Inquisitors who don't know that they're working on the same case.
- Shape Shifter — Callidus assassins have access to Polymorphine, allowing them to disguise themselves as a member of just about any race. They are employed to infiltrate enemy organizations, supply them with false intelligence or bad advice, and surgically remove the leadership.
- To The Pain — Stage two of the Nine Actions involves meticulously explaining in worrying detail what the next seven stages will involve. This is often enough to get captives to cooperate.
- Whip It Good — Sisters of Battle "Mistresses" lead squads of Sister Repentia, atoners running into battle in scraps of parchment and wielding oversized chainswords. TheSisters rival Slaanesh as 40K's number-one source of Fetish Fuel.
- White Haired Pretty Girl - Some of the Sisters of Battle are depicted with pure white hair, presumably dyed.
- White Magic — The Sisters are known for performing Acts of Faith on the battlefield, optimistically a sign of the Emperor's favor, pessimistically a form of psychic witchcraft.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness — Overlaps with He Knows Too Much. It is very hard to simply retire from an Inquisitor's retinue.
See also Eisenhorn, Ravenor, Dark Heresy.
Adeptus Mechanicus
In ancient times, men built wonders, laid claim to the stars and sought to better themselves for the good of all. But we are much wiser now.
Mankind's golden age is long past, and many of its technological secrets have been lost. When the Emperor was reuniting humanity, he found on Mars a strange priesthood devoted to the preservation of what knowledge remained. This Adeptus Mechanicus became a vital part of the Imperium, providing technical expertise, planet-wide factories known as Forge Worlds that produce everything from lasguns to civilian goods, and incredible weapons such as the Titan Legions. They are theoretically subordinate to the Imperium, and their highest-ranking member is one of the twelve High Lords of Terra, but the Machine Cult has its own specialized army, the Skitarii, and run the aforementioned Titan Legions, standing slightly apart from the Imperium of Man despite propping it up.
The Adeptus Mechanicus are not just humanity's last source of technological knowledge, they actively worship machinery, and venerate the Emperor as an aspect of an entity they call the Omnissiah. They believe that all devices have a "machine spirit" that must be placated in order for it to function properly, and therefore the Machine Cult's maintenance rituals involve a lot of incense, sacred oils, and chanting. This is a bunch of ignorant superstition that should have no effect on how devices function... but nonetheless, it seems to help. They also hold that for humans to perfect themselves they must take on more aspects of the machine, and therefore undergo voluntary cybernetic "upgrades," be they mechadendrites or other artificial limbs, or replacing the illogical half of their brain with a computer. Calling a Techpriest "more machine than man" is a compliment, and most Imperial citizens find the Priesthood of Mars hard to relate to, yet necessary.
While gifted mechanics and craftsmen, Adeptus Mechanicus orthodoxy holds that all technological advances have already been discovered, and they therefore place more emphasis on reverse-engineering or recovering old knowledge than they do on experimentation or upgrades. Thus, the Adeptus Mechanicus has kept mankind's technology working for ten thousand years, but has made little to no technological progress in that time. In fact, they have actually regressed, making some starships or weapons or other devices irreplaceable because the Tech-Priests don't know how to build them any more. They are a parallel to medieval craftsman's guilds in the way they preserve skill but quash innovation with a monopoly on technology. The Adeptus Mechanicus has no official tabletop army, but their influence is felt in the form of Tech-Priest Enginseers in the Imperial Guard, or the Techmarines of the Adeptus Astartes. The Aforementioned Titan Legions do make an appearance in the form of Forge World (the company) produced Titan models, which can be used in Apocalypse games.
Notable Adeptus Mechanicus tropes include:
- AI Is A Crapshoot — At some point in the distant past humanity dealt with a robot uprising, and therefore the Imperium operates under a strict ban on artificial intelligences.
- Ave Machina — The group that inspired the trope.
- Belief Makes You Stupid — The cause of the Technological Stasis.
- Bunny Ears Lawyer — By and large, they are good engineers despite everything. They do understand a significant fraction of their devices, and always strive to learn more—but this doesn't demystify anything, it simply brings them closer to union with the holy Omnissiah.
- Cargo Cult — The AdMech's worship of technology is completely literal, and they attend their machines with prayers as much as with tools.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander — Members of the Adeptus Mechanicus that are relatively friendly tend to be...quirky at best.
- Combat Tentacles — One of the more common enhancements is the mechadendrite, a long, flexible extra limb that is intended for delicate mechanical work, but is frighteningly handy in a fight.
- Companion Cube — Well, who hasn't resorted to pleading and begging when dealing with a computer at some point? The Adeptus Mechanicus are simply the (il)logical culmination of such desperation.
- Corrupt Church — The techpriests frequently apply For Science and their cult holds a great deal of power in the Imperium. Most do genuinely think of the progress such applications can do.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul — Subverted. As a techpriest advances in the ranks, he usually replaces more and more of his "weak flesh" with augmetics, at the same time as his mind draws farther away from normal human concerns. Some even replace half their brain with a computer, in order to approach the Omnissiah's perfect reason. But it is not the cybernetics that do the soul eating, but the Tech-Priests' beliefs.
- Empire With A Dark Secret — It is heavily implied that the Tech-Priests may be worshipping the C'Tan known as the Void Dragon, who is possibly imprisoned on Mars.
- The Emperor arranged things so their designs and beliefs were inspired by the Dragon without ever really focusing on it.
- Ensemble Darkhorse: To a certain degree among the fanbase.
- Eternal Engine — Mechanicus standard for interior (and exterior) decor. Wall-to-wall gears and electronics, only broken by the odd devotional shrine. The longer-established Forge Worlds are nothing but.
- For Science — The Machine Cult will do anything to find an STC or understand an ancient device.
- Genius Bruiser — Techmarines combine the muscle and training of a standard-issue Space Marine with a number of tools that double as weapons and the best technology they can bring to bear. They're actually one of the most formidable units in the army list!
- Humongous Mecha — Their God-Machines of the Titan Legions.
- Mac Guffin — The second-biggest prize for the Tech-Priests is a Standard Template Construct, one of many designs dating back from the Dark Age of Technology that were made to be as adaptable and robust as possible, using technology long since lost to man. The biggest would be a Standard Template Constructor, an automated factory and technical library that can build or describe any of them. So far, all they have found are partial, damaged ones that can only create one or a few — and even these are worth more than whole star systems.
- Mad Scientist — Some Tech-Priests rather lose their perspective in seeking ancient technology or pursuing the Omnissiah's thoughts in the workings of technology and the universe.
- Mecha Mooks — Though rare after the various Retcons over the course of First Edition, the Mechanicum still has the "Legio Cybernetica", squads of brainless-but-tough robots (or full-conversion servitors, Depending On The Writer) each commanded by a single Techpriest.
- Medieval Stasis — The Adeptus Mechanicus' beliefs have mostly ensured this for the Imperium. There is some innovation, but very slowly...
- New Technology Is Evil — Because everything worth discovering was done so thousands of years ago. Or has always existed logically implicit in the universe, more along the lines of New Technology Is Impossible.
- Somewhat justified as it is possible for demons to posses not only humans but also machines. Possession can occur through symbols of any kind. (Think your new fancy microchip design is awesome because it makes the Lasgun fire more accurate? Too bad the circuits form a pattern that has just attracted a Khorne demon. Say hello to your new possessed Lasgun.)
- Right Hand Versus Left Hand — If you think academic politics are bad now, just wait a few millennia and it will get worse. The Mechanicus fight and scheme against each other almost as much as the Inquisition, for various reasons—the "invention is evil" versus "invention is discovery" positions above, various more abstruse disputes, and simple struggles over prestige and promotion.
- Technopath — They only think they are, but sometimes it becomes true. With enough chanting, they can make Percussive Maintenance or an insane bodge job work when there's no way in hell it should.
- The Red Planet — Mars is the capital of the organization, and one of the most developed planets (i.e. covered in factories and hive spires) in the Imperium.
- Techno Wizard — With emphasis on "Techno." And "Wizard" too.
- Wave Motion Gun — The Ordinatii of divisio reductor are some of the biggest guns in the galaxy.
- We Will Use Manual Labor In The Future — The Schizo Tech resulting from all this lost technology leads to ships with warp engines and force fields requiring slave labor to manually reload cannons the size of office buildings.
- Wetware CPU — To get around the ban on advanced computers or robotics, the Adeptus Mechanicus creates servitors, which are either criminals or vat-grown humans who have their brains replaced with "bio-programming" and useful cybernetic upgrades such as tools or weapon systems grafted to their bodies. In extreme cases, servitors are wired into networks directly, forming the fleshy core of a computer system. Basically slaves, they are hopefully not sentient.
Squats
You people do well at war because you treat it as a religion. We do well because we treat it as a business. It is just a matter of outlook.
The lost army. Dwarfs IN SPACE. Bug chow.
The Squats were a race of abhumans—an offshoot of the human species that had adapted to subterranean life on high-gravity worlds near the galactic core. Separated from mainline humanity for tens of millenia, they grew shorter and, well, squatter, eventually coming to resemble the traditional fantasy dwarf in both appearance and temperament. Due to the difficulty of living on barren planets with radioactive surface conditions, the Squats developed extremely reliable food production systems, armor, and other technology, but also had a fatalistic attitude toward life. Over time, they made contact with the Orks and Eldar and gained a reputation for their high-quality tech, shrewd business dealings, and potent military defense. Eventually they were rediscovered by and reabsorbed into the Imperium, as their tech fascinated the Adeptus Mechanicus and made them a welcome addition to the Imperial armed forces, but they maintained a high degree of autonomy.
As a game faction, the Squats were never popular, nor did they fit very well in the increasingly Grim Dark setting. They were included back in the days when 40K was a trasnparent In Space version of Warhammer and every race in the latter had to appear in the former, but as the setting matured the Squats felt more and more out of place. Game designers never really decided on a "tone" for the army, and depictions of them wavered between goofy space dwarfs and miniature biker dudes. In 1994, they were discontinued with the explanation that the newly arrived Tyranids had descended upon their Homeworlds and stripped them clean of all life (like they do). A handful of embittered Squats still survive spread across the vast Imperium, but as a faction they are absolutely, positively never coming back. In fact, it's Games Workshop's official position that they won't even be mentioned.
Though the Squats are extremely dead, the "space dwarf" concept itself may be in for a comeback. Games Workshop has introduced a race called the Demiurg as a member species of the Tau Empire in the 40K spinoff Battlefleet Gothic, a species that practically never leaves their rugged Stronghold-class starships, makes a living as deep-space miners, are technologically-advanced enough to introduce ion cannon technology to the Tau, and closely resembles the Squats to boot. At the moment the only Demiurg models created have been for Gothic, where they are the only faction said to be too small and isolationary to field actual fleets, and there are no plans to make a tabletop army for them, but only Tzeentch knows what the future holds...
Notable Squat tropes include:
- Badass Biker — Well, triker. This was one of the very few unique, consistent parts of the Squats' racial identity.
- Base Breaker — Either Squats were incredibly stupid and Games Workshop did the right thing by retconning them away, or they were incredibly awesome and should continue to be supported. There are no in-betweens.
- Candle Jack — An unofficial but heavily enforced rule on the old Games Workshop forums was that anyone who stated that the Squats should be brought ba
- Canon Discontinuity — Don't mention them at GW press events.
- Cool Train — One of the Squats' war machines for the large-scale Epic 40,000 was the Land Train, a crawling fortress each car of which had a different function, be it troop transport, landing pad, or mortar battery.
- Dropped A Hive Fleet On Him - When Warhammer 40000 decides to kill you off, you are killed off with extreme prejudice.
- Expy — The Demiurg of the Squats, who were in turn an expy of Warhammer Dwarfs.
- Heavy Worlder — Strangely enough, the Imperial Guard's Ogryns also come from high-gravity worlds, but turned out completely different.
- Meaningful Name — Demiurg is Greek for "craftsman" or "artisan."
- Mood Dissonance — Part of the reason Squats were problematic.
- Old Shame — GW classifies Squats as one of those things "best forgotten."
- Our Dwarves Are All The Same — Even in space!
- Powered Armor — ... that makes them look like walking eggs... on bikes...
- Private Military Contractors — See the quote above.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy — Because Dwarfs are.
- Recycled In Space — Perhaps in more ways than one, given the Demiurg's arrival.
- The Scrappy — To some, but there remains a die-hard Squat fandom who keep trading the old models and tinkering with army list rules.
- Shout Out — In the Tau language, the Demiurg are referred to as "Bentu'sin." A very similar race of ion cannon traders called the Bentusi appeared in the video gameHomeworld, which was made by Relic Entertainment, who would later go on to give us Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War.
- Your Mileage May Vary — You either love 'em or hate 'em.
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