Editing Nobledark Imperium Imperial Forces (section)

== Abhuman Subspecies ==

=== Beastmen and Ogryn ===

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> '''''The Ogryn Project:'''''

As the Imperium spread its borders past the boundaries of Sol, it rapidly began to encounter new strains of abhumans. Some of these strains were familiar, such as the Navigators and additional tribes of Void Born. Others, such as the Ratlings, Felinids, and Nightsiders, were novel but genetically stable, having mutated through Dark Age of Technology genetic engineering and/or natural evolution - a testament to humanity's hardiness and ability to survive on almost any world.
 
For the most part, the Steward was unconcerned with admitting these abhuman variants into the Imperium. He already had one abhuman primarch, another nearly so, and he himself was only human in the loosest sense of the word. To him, the abhumans were just one more drop of variation in the great sea of humanity.
 
However, then the Imperium discovered the Ogryn. And the Beastmen.

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Each race presented its own problems for the Imperium. The previous abhuman species were all genetically stable and essentially comparable to baseline humans in intelligence. In contrast, the Ogryn were clearly of subhuman intelligence — being comparable to a mentally handicapped human at best — and behaved and looked like shaved apes more than people, fighting each other with their enlarged canine tusks.
 
The Beastmen were slightly more intelligent, but more in the manner of an extremely cunning predator than a civilized being. Completely ruled by their instincts and prone to additional mutations, when the Beastmen were discovered by the Imperium their lives were brutish, nasty, and short.
 
Such was the Steward’s concern that he brought in his highest ranked geneticists and gene-wrights to consult on this matter. At this point in time, the Steward’s various groups of genetic engineers had been merged into Adeptus Biologis, but had not yet adopted the trappings of the Mechanicum of Mars. The nominal head of the Biologis — a former Genesmith — suggested the Ogryn and Beastmen were so unsalvageable that the Steward’s best options were either to wipe them out immediately and resettle the planet with humans of other stock, or otherwise to sterilize them and then resettle the planets in 60 years or so after they had all died out. These suggestions caused considerable consternation among other schools of thought in the Biologis.
 
The Steward made it abundantly clear that the suggestion of summary genocide on a world under the Imperium’s protection would not be tolerated, and doing so without the Steward’s knowledge was grounds for immediate and summary execution without appeal. The Steward argued the Ogryn and Beastmen were humans. Afflicted humans, yes, but humans all the same. Their ancestors were no different than any other group that Earth had sent to the stars, but were merely dealt a bad hand by the universe through no fault of their own. Eventually, the Steward and the various factions of the Adeptus Biologis reached an agreement. The Biologis would release carefully tailored mutations into the genepools of the Ogryn and Beastmen over thousands of years, until the devolution in intelligence and sanity caused by the Age of Strife could be undone.
 
As of M41, Ogryn and Beastmen can be split into two broad categories: Primeval and Nova. Primeval Ogryn and Beastmen are rare, existing only on planets that have been just recently rediscovered by the Imperium. They are little different from the Ogryn and Beastmen first encountered by the Imperium in M30. Nova Ogryn and Beastmen vary in intelligence from little better than their Primeval ancestors to levels deemed acceptable to the Imperium (generally comparable to standard human intelligence, or close to it).
 
Nova Ogryn have lost some of the strength and durability of their ancestors, but in general are much more intelligent (though less so than baseline humans, on average). Combined with external artificial augmentations, such as Biochemical Ogryn Neural Enhancement or “Bonehead Procedure”, some Ogryn officers are entirely comparable to the average human in intelligence.
 
Nova Beastmen are one of the greatest success stories of the Biologis, along with the Astartes and Necromundan eco-engineering. Out of all the strains of abhuman, the Beastmen benefited the most from genetic engineering — mostly because of how bad they had it to begin with. Some have theorized that the Beastmen were created via crude methods of genetic engineering by splicing in large amounts of non-human DNA (even moreso than other abhumans) during the Dark Age of Technology. When society collapsed during the Age of Strife, there was no way to correct the myriad mutations and glitches that cropped up over the following 10,000 years. Indeed, when the Beastmen were first discovered by the Imperium they were not even recognized as human-descended at first.
 
Although the Beastmen started off much worse than the Ogryn, their uplifting progressed much faster. The same shoddy genetic engineering that made the Beastmen prone to mutation in the first place meant that the new, more stable genes introduced by the Adeptus Biologis became established across the population very quickly. As of M41, all Nova Beastmen are essentially of average human intelligence and, as previously stated, any Primeval Beastmen in M41 are all from very recently discovered worlds. Nevertheless, despite their dramatically more stable genome, Beastmen still suffer a slightly higher rate of mutation than the rest of the Imperium. No one is sure if the tendency towards mutations is due to the Biologis trying a little too hard to correct the flaws in the Beastmen genome or the Ruinous Powers trying to taint any long-term victory on the part of the Imperium.
 
The Adeptus Biologicus might have gone a little overboard in trying to keep the instincts of the Beastmen in check; as opposed to their Primeval brethren, Nova Beastmen tend to be rather solemn and dour, though this may be because they know how far they have climbed and how deep the pit they were lifted out of was. Their sense of duty and debt is second only to that of Krieg, but thankfully for the Imperium’s sake the Beastmen are much less suicidal. Promethean beliefs tend to be widespread among the Beastmen. The Nova Beastmen have not lost all of the bestial instincts of their kin, however; Beastmen often speak of a “Weakness of the Beast” to refer to any behavior that seems to be driven by instinct or base desire, one of the few societal ideas they may have picked up from the Adeptus Biologicus. Nova Beastmen in general also tend to have much sharper senses than baseline humans, and are valued even in otherwise all-baseline regiments as scouts and trackers.

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==== Beastmen and Ogryn Society ====

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Nova Ogryn tend to live under a tribal or clan-like structure of governance. There are perhaps dozens of worlds whose inhabitants come under the broad category of Ogryn, and each world can have a thousand different tribal groups, each with their own individual set of traditions. Nevertheless, there do exist some similarities. Common to most tribes are a leading Patriarch, some paternal ancestor of a large proportion of the tribe, and the presence of a Wise Woman. Sometimes this Wise Woman the chief’s mother, sometimes his wife, sometimes it's not a woman at all but just someone with good judgement. A priest/shaman position is also common in most tribes for matters of spiritual significance and dealing with supernatural phenomena (which usually boils down to “leave it alone and tell the nearest adept”). Sometimes the tribe might be blessed/cursed with a Witch/Warlock who has psychic powers. Psychic Ogryn do exist. They used to be rarer than in the baseline gene pool, but now exist in the same proportion as baseline humanity. This may be a side effect of the increase in cognitive ability or by using baseline human genes to uplift the Ogryn.

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Although Ogryns are typically not as smart as baseline humans, they are generally smarter than people expect. The officers with BONE implants can fluently converse in High Gothic about all manner of matters both practical and philosophical, and are invariably literate. But that's because they were already the brightest of the bright even before the bio-crystalline Cortex Technology was inserted into their brain. The average Ogyrn can learn to maintain an extra-large laser rifle by rote, can understand contractual obligations (although they will sign said contract with an X), and has enough brains to follow orders and even understand quite complex strategy — provided it's explained slowly with small words and you get them to repeat it back to you just to make sure. Ogryn are also known to be fiercely loyal and honorable. It's a bloody strange day when an Ogryn breaks their word.

Nova Beastmen, on the other hand, tend to form rigid military hierarchies when left to form their own societies. This is not due to any intrinsic inclination to do so, as opposed to baseline humanity and the various cultures thereof, but more because any governmental structure that doesn’t encourage iron-hard discipline tends to implode within a few years. Their inner animal is still very close to the surface, and their increased cognitive faculties haven’t tamed it in the slightest. Beastmen societies are ruled by philosopher-kings called Brahmins, who tend to exemplify everything that the Beast is not. More of a high judge than a war chief, Brahmins are seemingly at odds with the otherwise militarized nature of Beastmen society, but a wise and solemn individual that will not give in to base desires and passions proves to be an excellent leader for those who may. 

Another notable feature of Beastman society are Aurochs, the warrior-champions of Beastman society. These huge warriors are about the size and strength of Astartes, but overall tend to be much less effective for several reasons. First, Aurochs make up a vanishingly small proportion of the Beastmen population and thus cannot reliably be mass produced. Secondly, Aurochs lack all of the advantages beyond sheer strength that make Space Marines so lethal. Finally, Aurochs cannot use standardized equipment. Because of their rarity, armor and weaponry often have to be individually crafted; most Imperial helmets are unable to fit over their horns and even normal Beastmen helmets being too small for them.

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=== Nightsiders ===

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> '''''A Brief Elucidation of the Nightsider:'''''
 
The Nightsider is a catchall term for a grouping of sub-species adapted for a specific type of environment without any common origin beyond that of any other human group. They are native to many worlds of the Imperium, such as Praetoria, Calth (from the transplanted population of dead Posul), Equixus, at least one world in the Carcharodon recruitment area, and many others. Typically, they are a pale breed adapted to living on worlds either with no light or additional environmental conditions that make dwelling in the light substantially detrimental. Such reasons can include, but are not limited to, the planet having unusually harmful sunlight, extreme daytime predation or population pressure, or isolation in the dark lands of tidally-locked worlds. Worlds populated entirely by Nightsiders are rare (but not unprecedented), as they would require an environment where regular humans could not survive, and such worlds typically can't maintain global environmental conditions that would allow a population of humans or near-humans to survive at all.

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Although disparate in origin, the Nightsiders of the Imperium share common features which are partly necessitated by their environment and partly derived from a standardized Dominion era gene-template; Large dark eyes, a lack of pigmentation in the skin, hair and nails, the ability to synthesize vitamin D in the liver, and a very slightly lower optimal body temperature. Due to their native environments often being lower in available energy, Nightsiders often form smaller social structures based on extended family bonds, typically numbering no more than twenty or thirty individuals operating over a wide area dictated by availability of resources. To this end, the Nightsiders are also often fiercely territorial in nature. This borderline anti-social nature is assumed to be more cultural than biological, as they have been integrated into the Imperial Army with little additional problems after the first few months when they realize that the meals are regular and predictable, although even then they tend to form groups among themselves and disperse evenly within the regiment.
 
Nightsiders are as intelligent as baseline humanity and so have never qualified for AdBio uplifting like the Beastmen and Ogryn strains. Although they were often found in primitive conditions by the Imperium, this is typically a result of finding a long term equilibrium with their direct environmental needs; usually a lack of available food prevented work specialization and the larger social projects that result. In all cases, efforts of the Missionarius Galaxia, especially the Orders Sabine, have resulted in varying degrees of successful pacification and introduction to true civilization.
 
The introduction to the civilization of the Imperium's light has gone smoothest in places where the local populations could be persuaded to accept the tithe willingly. The Nightsiders are human; they do not gladly eat the slain of their own kind or kill off excess population in times of greatest need, but they did so nevertheless in the name of survival. The tithe offers a way out, as excess population is sent out into the galaxy and send their pay home in the form of nutri-paste and tinned foods, and when they return they have had the habits of good order trained into them, which they spread to the rest of their kindred. This cultural influence over the generations has resulted in them adopting Imperial technology willingly as barter and trade for their services, rather than as the recipients of charity. Charity they would not tolerate, as they seldom care for the pity of outsiders (a term typically used to mean anyone that is not part of their family group). By this helping hand, the Imperium reaches out to them rather than reaching down to them, and in doing so all may rise up higher as allies and friends.
 
In the Imperial guard, Nightsiders typically make very good target spotters for artillery and patrol squad removers. The ways of hunting are often a second nature to them, and all good commanders know how best to take advantage of this.
 
Despite long term introduction into the wider Imperium, the various Nightsider cultures have retained many of the more "primitive-seeming" rituals and customs of their ancestors, at least partly because, like all ab-humans, they maintain an "us and them" mentality based on the very obvious and noticeable differences between themselves and the teeming masses of other humanities. This is encouraged for the most part as it binds their social order, and so long as they retain pride in their social identity whilst understanding that the Imperium places due worth in them based on their skills and contributions, they are less tested by the whispers of more terrible things. Due to their extremely family based social structures the prevailing religious trends tend towards the worship of ancestors and ancestor spirits, although due to their disparate nature this is not always the case and great variation has been noted.

Many human strains, both baseline and abhuman, express apprehension towards Nightsiders, often because their strange habits and dark sclera give them an uncanny valley effect. Ironically, many xenos species find Nightsiders to appear more personable than regular humans (at least in appearance; their behavior often having the same off-putting effect), white sclera being virtually unique amongst humanity and its component subspecies in the galaxy, with some xenos even admitting that the white sclera of human eyes can be creepy in their eyes.
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=== Ratlings ===

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> '''''Of the Ratlings:'''''

The Ratling strain of humanity — or Ornsworlder as many of them prefer to be called — is a variety of abhuman. Unlike many other abhuman strains, however, Ratlings are native to only one world: Ornsworld. The planet Ornsworld was founded sometime between the later years of M6 and the early days of M7, according to the radioactive decay of a can of irradiated waste on the largest moon and by the local legends of the mighty hero "Orn of Many Tales". Orn was a mighty warrior and fearless explorer of the First Stellar Exodus, so the tales tell, who headed a colony fleet and braved the uncharted deeps of space in early ships of imperfect design. Many places on the surface of the planet hold the name of Orn; the great mesa of Orn's Table, the immense cavern system of Orn's Burrow, the ancient water filled impact crater of Orn's Bath, and the escarpment of Orn's Headstone, the foot of which is reputedly the site of Orn's Grave. Due to the rarity of surviving records of this era independent proof of Orn existing remain undiscovered. All Ratlings claim descent from Orn, though if he ever did exist then it is inevitable that they are correct due to the passage of time and isolation during the Age of Strife. From this stage of development up until the Age of Strife it is believed that the Ornsworlders did not deviate noticeably from the baseline human form. The role of Ornsworld in the days of, and days prior to, the Great and Bountiful Human Dominion is unknown, as records of that era of Ornsworld have not survived.
 
At the onset of the Age of Strife, in the first days of the Iron War of which dark legends tell the fell deeds of, Ornsworld fared better than most. Some have suggested that the locals had slightly Luddite tendencies and thus did not trust thinking machines that thought as men thought. Others have pointed out rusted remains in the mountains of the south above where glaciers once roamed, where Iron Folk sat in the caves, their alloy shells still sitting where they died though their hearts have long since decayed beyond possibility of reanimation. Others again point out that human bones were found alongside them, and that there is no evidence that they died in violence. Whatever the cause or evidence thereof, it seems that the most sophisticated Men of Iron never made it to Ornsworld and as such Ornsworld had neither an Iron Mind nor a Man of Gold. There is also no isotopic residue in the soil layers from this time to indicate that the sudden Ice Age was anything but either a natural occurrence or a long delayed hiccup of the original terraforming efforts.
 
The Ice Age would have been correctable with the subtle application of solar reflectors and atmospheric tweaking that was common enough practice for Dominion era habitation, but although Ornsworld had been spared the worst of the Iron War it did not come out unmarred; the planet's industry was in ruins and beyond a few weather monitoring and communication satellites the planet had no space presence. The world slipped into the cold and its inhabitants could do nothing to stop it.

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There is debate in the leafy halls of the AdBio if the physiological changes that started in this dwindling age of isolation were the result of intentional engineering, to better survive the new and sorrowful age, or were a result of natural adaptation to the conditions of that age. Some point out that the alterations couldn't have occurred that fast across the entire global population, especially when considering the alterations to the digestive system and the bones in the hands and feet. Others point out that by the time that the Iron War started genetic tempering was already present in the population of the entire planet, bar a few puritan holdouts, and that with a broader pallet available the beneficial structures could have stabilized in a mere handful of generations (i.e. natural processes built from semi-artificial components). Whatever the cause, the result was a deviation that was sufficient to have them declared beyond the normal levels of variation found in the baseline population. Such changes include a hand with three fingers and two thumbs, a similarly structured foot, unusual neural architecture in the parietal lobe resulting in a high tolerance for physical pain, the stomach being divided into two separate organs, and a proportionally larger and more functional appendix. The shorter and on average slightly broader stature would not be enough on its own to have them classed as abhuman, as many pygmy populations are not classed as such. It is said that Ratlings have a better sense of smell, but this has been proven incorrect beyond normal human variation. Ratlings do, however, posses better hand to eye coordination, which slightly but measurably surpasses the human norm when the whole population is taken into account.
 
The deviations were ideal for them to have at least a little bit of an edge in the food scarce and cold environment that their world had become. As a society they could have gone two ways: increased competition or greater cooperation. In the case of the Children of Orn they would not forsake their bonds of common humanity and kinship, and did not turn on each other, preferring instead to ration carefully what they had and huddle together in the dark for warmth; they would die as people rather than live as beasts. In time what few technological artifacts they had preserved failed and they had not the skills or tools to repair or replace them. Thus the Ornsworlders became a rustic and simpler people.
 
No cold spell can endure forever, even one as soul crushing and lingering as the great winter, and spring came at last in the late part of the twenty-ninth millennium. By the time that the fledgling Imperium found them, the glaciers were retreating miles at a time each summer and regaining no ground in milder winters. The people of Ornsworld, long since accustomed to making do with little, were in an age of plenty and underwent a golden age of rapid expansion in those fresh green years, as miles of new farmland opened before them year after year and great joy was had that their old fairy stories had come true; the people Orn was born to had come at last again to their world, the Tall Folk of Earth. No age of expansion can continue indefinitely, and the Ratlings found an equilibrium in time with their new and verdant world, tending to its great green glacial valleys lovingly. They knew the value of what they, by the grace of their gods, had. By the time such stability was reached, they had already managed to acquire a little bit of a reputation with the Imperium at large; by their first impressions, of being fond of food and drink and prone to large families.
 
In the years after the Ornsworlders served the Imperium dutifully and provided many fine marksmen and regimental cooks, as well as food stuffs. They were a well-loved people, gentle and kind and full of good sense and down-to-earth wisdom. Their friends were many as they tended to be generous and always possessed a delightfully infectious laughter. The Imperium was their golden age.
 
The golden age did not last. Dominion records were found in the 12th Black Crusade by a Chaos Lordling — Eidolon Ever-Burning — of an artifact of on Ornsworld known as the Eye of Night. It was not an artifact of Dominion made but something far more ancient that they had unearthed, that was said to be able to destroy complex mortal technology great and small, fragile or robust. He descended upon peaceful Ornsworld like a great dragon made of fire, and like an inferno reduced all he touched to cinders and ash as he took the Eye from its hiding place in a deep and flooded cave. Hideous as his presence was, he vanished soon enough with his prize. But the resistance had been stiffer than expected, and the Children of Orn were weakened now. Like sharks to spilled blood, other creatures came to the weakened world as the Imperium was hamstrung and distracted by the rest of a greater war.
 
When the Imperium managed to scrape the resources to send a force to Ornsworld, it was far too late. Gone were the songs in the halls of the thanes, the laughter was silent, and all that was to be found were the bodies; arranged in great patterns of Chaotic offering, lying where they had fallen in the hunts, or mutilated and thrown on sacrificial heaps. Those joyful smiles were twisted into expressions of fear and pain. Only Chaos Spawn moved on the blighted and tainted land. The Ratlings had been exterminated to the last child.
 
There were Ornsworlders in the forces that landed in the fresh ashes. Their tears were bitter and sorrowful beyond words, and that sorrow was turned to a cold and terrible wrath. It might seem amusing that a branch humanity that seemed built for peace could be so angry, and maintain that anger — colder than the deeps of space — for so long. But they can, and it seems like it should be an impotent rage, but it is not. A call was put out by the head chef of one of the regiments that landed, a dreadful and terrible message whispered from astropath to scribe and passed on across the Imperium. All the sons and daughters of Orn were to come home.
 
The fields were made green again, trees grew again from the ashes on the mass graves, and from a distance perhaps Ornsworld would look like all was how it was. But those happy songs are now songs of war and retribution. The sons and daughters of that world look to the stars no longer in hope but in hate. The law of conscription has been restricted, as were it not too many would heed the war drums that beat in their hearts. People look at Ratlings and are unimpressed, and remain unimpressed until they start racking up a body count. A length of spider-silk, once sold to off-world merchants in bolts and dresses for princesses, is now carried by every Ratling soldier, and can cut a neck all the way to the bone. Those clever hands and keen eyes, once used to carve and paint things of beauty, now put those skills to a greater, bloody work in their service to the Guard and Ornsworld; Ratling marksmen are famed and feared across half the galaxy, as they move swiftly and quietly, and kill without hesitation or remorse. They are owed a blood-price. A price that could only be measured in the depths of their oceans of shed tears.
 
The world of Orn and its inhabitants are a very unexpected terror that stalks the stars in the dying of the forty-first millennium. Their roused anger is all the more terrible for how unexpected it was. Although the Eye of Night was undoubtedly a great boon to the forces of Chaos, it might not be worth what has risen against them.

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