Editing Abhuman (section)

==Origins==
Humanity's characteristics are influenced by the conditions in which it grew up, including gravity, climate, and diet. If a population were isolated in a different environment for a long enough time, their distant descendants would be adapted to those new conditions.

During the [[Dark Age of Technology]], humanity spread to the stars, first with slower-than-light colony ships, and then with [[Warp]] drives after the discovery of the [[Navigator]]s. Some of their destination planets were very different from Earth, and when humanity entered the [[Age of Strife]] with the collapse of the old government, the inhabitants of these worlds were cut off from other colonies (it is known that Gene Wars were fought between various governments made up of people that couldn't really be considered human anymore during the Age of Strife); when contact was restored during the [[Great Crusade]] (or even later), their gene pools had diverged so far from the baseline that they could almost be classified as separate species. The Imperium spared them, though, because while they were clearly not pure humans, they were useful and no more prone to mutation than any other human. As humanity had ready access to genetic engineering in that era, it can be difficult to distinguish natural evolution from artificial enhancement in many cases, as Games Workshop does not usually reveal the necessary details.

The Horus Heresy novels mentioned that even during the high point of abhuman tolerance, formerly human populations have been purged due to achieving certain (high) levels of genetic "deviancy". The natives of Davin were shaggy creatures that were close to it, though Chaos may have had a hand in that, unbeknown to the Imperials.

Abhumans can be loosely categorized by the nature of their origin.